CRIM 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Edwin Sutherland, Main Source, Differential Association

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 104
• Professor: Nick Athey

Document Summary

The chronological progression: aker"s social learning theory (1973), burgess and aker"s differential association reinforcement theory, sykes and matza"s techniques of neutralization (1957), skinner"s operant conditioning (1953), sutherland"s differential theory (1942). Introduced by edwin sutherland: was a professor at university of chicago for five years, rejected notion that crime was caused by criminal type , said criminal behavior was learned, and that it was the social context that contributed. Association: criminal behavior is learned, learned in a process of interaction with others, principal part of learning occurs within intimate personal groups, learning includes: a) techniques of committing suicide and motives, rationalizations, and attributes. Nine propositions cont: learn definitions of legal codes as favorable and non-favorable, become delinquent through excess of definitions favorable to crime, differential associations may differ in intensity, duration and frequency. Involves same mechanisms as other types of learning: needs and values much the same for delinquents and non- delinquents.