Sutherland's Theory Of Differential Association

The principle in law that one is innocent until proven guilty has created much discourse. There are those who feel that the moment that one is arrested, there is reasonable belief that they committed the crime. However, there are those who feel that just as the principle states, one is, and should be taken as a victim and the outcome could be either way: guilty or not guilty. In fact, this argument is supported by the many cases of malicious prosecutions and mistaken identities.

In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. The differential association theory is the most talked about of the learning theories of deviance. (DAT). (Sutherland) (Sociological Theories of Crime and Their Explanation on Crime , 2007) Theories of criminality are most commonly derived from human behavior.

In 1985 Robert Agnew a sociologist come to an interest of studying the theory and finds a potential for the theory in explaining several causes of crime in society, but due to its limitation he developed and reformulated the theory to widen its dimension or scope. After revising the theory he come up into General strain theory of crime and builds its foundation in 1992. General strain theory argues that frustrations and anger leads someone to deviance and may result into committing a crime (Agnew, 1992). GST defines strains as negative life events and conditions which are commonly disliked by the people who experience it or negative experiences of a person in a given group (Agnew, 1992; 2001; 2006). Strain is often classified in two distinct types, the Objective Strain and the Subjective Strain.

Another factor to consider is that not all crimes result in the immediate arrest and conviction with the guarantee of apprehension; therefore, the overall deterrence effect becomes reduced. A scholar in crime and punishment, Michael Tory states, “At the very least, macro-level research on deterrent effects should test the null hypothesis of no effect rather than the price theory assumption that offenders’ behaviours will change in response to changes in legal threats” (3). Tough on crime policies and an increased severity on punishment will not advocate for the desired deterrence affects. Instead, our current criminal justice system seems to actively ignore the failing legislatures and laws that feed into increased recidivism rates. Yes,

(Young, 1981). Classicism Enhancing informational knowledge is the purpose of its punishment, which allows people to conduct rational decision. Therefore, the proportional penalty is suggested to launch when they devoted violation that harms the society, which promoted equality that offenders need to be aware of.

Sociology of Law and Order Introduction The act of examining why people commit crime is very vital because it assists in knowing how crime is handled. Because of this, many theories have come up that try to explain why crime occurs and the possible remedies to the causes. When crime is committed, every society would have its own way of framing laws that can be used to punish lawbreakers. Thus, the kind of punishment given to a criminal depends on the society one is living in.

These attackers influenced a target risk elements called VIVA, which is the value, inertia, visibility and access. In contrast to theories of criminality, which are centred on the figure of the criminal and the psychological, biological, or social factors that motivated the criminal act, the focus of routine activity is the study of crime as an outcome, feature its relation to space and time and feature its ecological nature and the implications thereof (Mirὀ F., 2014). (Cohen and Felson (1979) “Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity

This paper will display how a criminal can be born but molded and persuaded by the society to cultivate the criminal mannerisms making them an actual criminal. While undeniable, what should only be seen as an inclination of crime rather than the actual cause of crime itself are the theories of genetic influences (Raine. A. 1993 pg 50). Showing that genetics can create a criminal, but society helps farm the criminal traits within.

In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky challenges the concept of crime. Through Raskolnikov’s ability to rationalize murder and evil, Dostoevsky challenges the concept of what a crime is. By depicting Raskolnikov in a way that he rationalizes his acts, it can be understood that the concept of crime is dependent on the situation and the outcome. With this, one can question whether crime will remain as a crime even if it results in the benefit of the majority of the population. In this paper, I will be arguing the concept of what crime is through the situations and the outcomes shown in Crime and Punishment, with the help of true to life crimes.

Each of these disciplines try to explain why crime is committed and how people are compelled to commit crime, a good example is sociology. Sociology attributes crime due to poor socialization in society, while psychology attributes crime mainly due to biological and Pathological criminogenic behaviors. Many scholars have tried to define crime and each has given many reasons why crime is committed. Scholars such Cesare Lombroso attribute

I believe that rather than spanking, this is a sound path to train kids. They bear a chance to solve their anger, but at the same time have something held away from them so that they can realize the behavior they displayed was incorrect. To me, spanking is simply an impulsive style of discipline that instills fear in the children and resolves nothing. It teaches children that spanking is okay and is a means of settling arguments between parents and kids. Instead, I think verbal communication is indispensable to solving these conflicts.

Theories help answer two very important questions; how and why. The purpose of a theory is to explain how and why certain things and/or events are connected to other things and/or events. Everything done in the criminal justice field is based on theory. In criminology, theories answer questions about criminal behavior that would have otherwise not been answered. Theories give clues to how and why people commit criminal acts.

It is well known in America that gangs are problematic. The Federal Bureau of Investigations estimates there are approximately 1.4 million gang members in the United States which includes prison gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and criminal street gangs. This statistic is probably grossly underestimated because of inconsistencies in reporting gangs and gang members from state to state. Even with those estimates, gangs are responsible for a large amount of crime in America. To avoid the growing street gang problem, we should focus our efforts on gang prevention at an early age.

The article that I found is called: ‘Hero’ Muslim cop, her son harassed by bigot in Brooklyn by Rocco Parascandola and Ben Kochman. This article talks about a hate crime occurring in regards to their Muslim appearance. Aml Elsokary was off duty during the time of the hate crime against her son. She was wearing her hijab, as she returned to the place where she had dropped off her son, she found out that her son had been shoved by a white man. The white man appeared to be somewhere in his 30s.