theories of crime and deviance

THEORIES OF CRIME & DEVIANCE


Sutherland’s differential association theory is one that relates deviant or criminal behavior back to the learning processes and environments the individual has received during the course of their lives. While this theory to explain certain acts of deviance can often times be used, it still has many flaws. First, the theory itself does not give a clear definition as to what criminal or deviant behavior is or is not. Sutherland refers to this as “favorable” or “unfavorable” messages that later are seen in the individual as behavior patterns. Due to the fact that deviance is impossible to give a concrete definition to, there would in turn be no specific rational or guidelines to its formation with the given individual’s behavior patterns. Second, this theory fails to explain where the completely individualistic or rare in character acts of deviance come from. How would it explain an entirely new act? If there were never any mentors or ...