I just realized how cruel we were being to those two young men who tried to rob the Porsche buyer. If you read the theory below, it all becomes clear that it was not really their fault.
They were a victim of the pressures that society puts on them.
Next time, I hope you will all be a bit more understanding!
Me too!
See, you thought is was just these guys being bad and stupid.
Theory of Differential Association
The theory of differential association was developed by Edwin Sutherland and, that the nine principles applied to this theory explain the reasons of crime and delinquency. In this theory, he explains that there is organization in all societal classes, but that they are not organized in the same way as others. Also his theory attempts to explain that those in the lower class may be
considered inferior or dysfunctional, but not by nature.
The first principle is that criminal behavior is learned, people can pick up behaviors just by watching others. So if someone is always around a person with criminal behaviors, then that person too could become criminal in their behaviors.
The second principle is that criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other people in a process of communication. Just like the first principle, the more your around someone with those traits, the more likely your to pick up those traits yourself.
The third principle says that criminal behavior is learned principally in intimate personal groups. This means that you can learn criminal behavior from things you see, do, and hear, but your biggest influence of picking up, and learning from these behaviors is with the people your closest too.
The fourth principle is that learning criminal behavior involves the techniques of committing the crime and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. This refers to the fact that people learn how to become criminal by watching other criminals do what they do best, they will learn how to commit a crime, how to plan it, how to react towards it, etc.
The fifth principle is that the specific directions of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as either favorable or unfavorable.
This means that people and/or groups interpret the law differently than others, some may view that what's wrong may actually be right, and so on and so forth.
The sixth principle states that a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violations of the law over those favorable of the law.
This means that the more a person is exposed to criminality the more likely they are to become involved in criminal acts. T
The seventh principles says that differential association may vary, which says that people will vary in frequency, length, priority, or intensity.
Not everyone has the same ideas as others, so the importance or need is different than others.
The eighth principle states that the process of learning criminal behavior by association involves all the mechanisms involved in any other learning.
This refers to the fact that we must try something and see what happens.
For example if you touch a hot stove, then you'll receive pain in your finger.
The ninth and last principle says that while criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it's not explained by those general needs and values, because non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values. What this means is that most people desire wealth, power, control, etc. but most people don't become criminals in order to obtain these desires.
Rather, criminal acts occur because of the other eight principles. People become criminal from learning, seeing, doing as others do, from experience, and so on.