Differential Association (Sutherland)

General: delinquents and criminals, including white-collar criminals, learn to commit crime just as noncriminals learn to behave conventionally, through socialization with significant others in primary groups.

The nine points:

1. Criminal behavior is learned.

2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.

3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate groups.

4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime (complex or simple), and (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.

6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.

7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.

8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.

9. Although criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values, because noncriminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

Not a theory of association

One can learn law-abiding behaviors from non-law abiding people as well as learn non-law abiding behavior from law-abiding people (Cressey).