Richard Ramirez's Differential Association Theory

We have looked at criminals for years and tried to figure out why they did what they did. But one of the most questioned crimes is that of a serial killer. They just go out, mostly with a type, and kill people at seemingly random. To people this is the weirdest thing and something most people would never think of doing in their entire life. But to these killers this becomes their life and most likely their own death. One such man is Richard Ramirez, age twenty four, or The Night Stalker- or Nightstalker as some reported- who went on a spree of murders that last well into two years in southern California. In a time line put out by IMB, he started his killing spree in April of 1984 when the body of a nine year old was found in the basement were …show more content…
In this theory there are nine propostions that may cause you to become a criminal, all of them basically going back to saying it is because of the people you come into contact with that will cause you to become criminal. Our book puts it best when it says “that it is a constant contact with definitions favorable to violations of laws and definitions unfavorable to violations of laws (CITE). This is basically saying that we, those law abiding citizen, all have times where we will come in to contact with bad things but the good things we come in contact with outweigh them and thus we stay good. But for people like Ramirez they come in contact with the bad more and thusly they become …show more content…
He is learning these habits from someone close to him but it should be pointed out that merely learning how to do these things doesn’t make you a killer. There are many people who have been taught to shoot a gun and use a knife that haven’t went out a killed thirteen people. Thus this is where the theory starts to slip. Because even though he was taught by his cousin to use these things and even saw him use his gun in the heat of a fight with his wife, we can’t definitively say it is because of this teaching that he turned into a killer. In fact the murder could have completely put him off of ever using a weapon again. It is now that I should point out that Ramirez is one of five children and yet is the only one that went on to be a killer. So not only did only one of these children fall off the law abiding wagon. But they all had contact with the cousin and though Ramirez’s contact was much more apparent than that of his siblings they to had to have some type of contact with him and his weapons and photos at some point. Yet they all became mostly law abiding