Sutherland's Differential Association: Why People Commit Crimes

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Sutherland would respond to my friend’s comment by saying that differential association is the reason how and why people commit crime. Differential Association is where a person learns criminal behavior through interaction among relationships (family and friends). As people grow and continue to interact with the people around them they learn what is and what is not acceptable in society (“definitions”) (Text, Part IV). Sutherland’s differential association theory has nine key components that explain criminal offending. These nine components are : criminal behavior is learned, it is learned interactions and communication between others, usually learned within well-known groups, when crime is learned techniques and motives are decided, it is learned from legal definitions, excess of incentives will increase the likelihood of criminal behavior, differential associations will fluctuate, there is a process just like with anything else being learned, and finally needs and wants of an individual’s influences a person’s motives/criminal behavior (Lecture and text, CH10). Akers …show more content…

As children we learn what is right and wrong from our parents and what they see as right and wrong. We learn to talk, walk, and eat from the imitations of observed behavior of our parents. As we continue to grow we build relationships among our peers and we learn positive and negative behaviors from our friends and from watching others. If a person is taught negative behavior through friends and family negative behavior and actions will be the outcome. Building on Akers findings of imitation and reinforcement a person learning from past mistake will less likely maybe to commit criminal behavior (text, CH11). Positive and negative reinforcement will play a large role in deterrence of behavior for an individual. Along with learning processes there could be internal and external factors that influence criminal behavior in an

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