SOC 145 Lecture Notes - Edwin Sutherland, Differential Association, Social Disorganization Theory
Document Summary
Edwin sutherland is the author most associated with this theoretical explanation of crime and deviance. What sutherland had discovered was the idea that many deviants must learn how to evade social norms and laws. Many times, a deviant is assisted by others who are more experienced, and a sort of apprenticeship occurs. a deviant is made, not born. Deviants must grow, learn, evolve, and become deviant according to this perspective. Scientific explanations of criminal behavior may be stated either in terms of the processes which are operating at the moment of the occurrence of crime or in terms of the processes operating in the earlier history of the criminal. In the first case, the explanation may be called mechanistic, situational, or. The mechanistic type of explanation has been favored by physical and biological scientists, and it probably could be the more efficient type of explanation of criminal behavior.
