Edwin Sutherland 's Theory Of Differential Association

The video Streetwise that we had watched in class did a wonderful job in depicting many of the various struggles that kids living on the street are forced to endure from day to day. The theory that I felt best fit this film would be that of Differential Association by Edwin Sutherland. I felt as if the book did this theory justice explaining it exceptionally well, “Techniques of and attitudes regarding criminal behavior are learned within intimate personal groups; a person becomes delinquent from an excess of definitions favorable to the violation of law over definitions unfavorable to the violation of law” (119). As Sutherland stated, crime is learned in close, intimate groups and interactions, which in turn perpetuates various techniques used to carry out criminal behavior.
Throughout this video many of the main character’s actions supported that of Edwin Sutherland’s theory of Differential Association. Sutherland used many propositions to help explain why individuals commit crime. For example, proposition one stated that, “criminal behavior is learned. Sutherland declared that criminal behavior is not inherited biologically or otherwise the result of any biological traits”(120). An example of this within the video would be Rat being taught by his close friend Jack how to dumpster dive and scam restaurants out of food. This leads us into the second proposition that states that, “criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of