Theoretical Perspectives on Criminal Behavior

Abstract

One of the most widely accepted theories for criminal behavior, especially among sociologists and social psychologists, is that criminality is a learned behavior. The differential association theory was devised by Edwin H. Sutherland (1) and proposes that people learn to act criminally by associating with others who share their beliefs, as opposed to those who hold opposing ones.

After more than 30 years, neither major theoretical updates nor empirical evidence for Sutherland's hypothesis (2) have been found. The purpose of this research is to provide an empirically grounded and theoretically sound presentation of differential association within the context of current apparel.

While the theory of differential association is right in its central claim that criminal behavior is learnt, it fails to account for learning principles discovered in recent laboratory research, which renders the theory seriously defective. Since Sutherland established his idea before the discovery of the fundamental principles, it needs to be reevaluated and reinterpreted in light of laboratory tests performed between 1940 and 1964.