What Is The Differential Association Theory

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Differential Theory And White Collar Crimes
Jessie Betts Florida A&M University

Theories of Criminal Behavior
Dr. Harris
3/8/2015

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What is the Differential Association Theory? Differential Association is a certain theory in criminology developed by a man named Edward Sutherland. This theory by definition in the criminology prospective, proposes that through interaction with others, individuals learn different traits. Some of these traits that are learned are common traits such as values, attitudes, techniques, and motive. These certain motives are motives learned for criminal behavior. This is a very common theory, one that is most known for defiance. According to a certain website article, The Differential Association, “His theory gives priority to the power of social influences and learning experiences and can be expressed in terms of a series of propositions.” Something associated with Differential Association would be White Collar Crime. These two things go along together hand and hand with each other. What is White Collar Crime? White Collar Crime is also made up by the same man Edward Sutherland. This type of crime claims to be non-violent but I see this in a different perspective. This type of crime refers to being financially motivated and is committed by government or business men and women. This type of crime was first established in 1939. According to the article online, Lying Cheating, and Stealing, “A single scam can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars.” The relationship between Differential Association and White Collar Crime are simple. People in this world usually want to become rich and wealthy. Dealing with White Collar Crime people are usually of the higher power and are known for being very respectable. By being financially motivated people do what they think are non-violent crimes such as smuggling money illegally. Thus, these things turn into traits individuals learn to keep committing these
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types of crimes with. Let’s take the stock market for instance, people aren’t stupid and definitely are not just going to invest their money into someone or something they think is going to steal it. This is when the White Collar Crime people start to come in. Con-artist people are people who are smooth talkers and are very confident in what they do. They have certain goals they need to achieve.
For example, from the you tube video of the Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff, He was a person that people felt as though they could trust. The people Bernie stole billions of dollars from went on to explain that he was a man of trust and higher power. Bernie wasn’t just a person of trust they thought, the people felt as though he was a good friend and wanted to sincerely help them with their money. These are the type on con-artist that people end up falling for because they feel as though they can trust where they are putting their money, knowing little to nothing where it actually going. Bernie was promising his investors steady constant returns of their money back. Usually con-artist will promise their investors double back or triple back but that is when the investors start to get suspicious. That is why Bernie took a better and more intelligent route by telling his investors what they wanted to hear. Another example of this relationship of the two theories, also from the video clip, it goes on to explain that investors want security and stability; These are the two things the investors Bernie took advantage of were promised. Bernie carried traits such as criminal attitudes, techniques, values, and motives as I explained earlier from the Differential Association theory. The question was if Bernie was actually this type of person in the beginning of his criminal career, or if he became this type of person learning traits to help his Ponzi scheme to .
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become even bigger. Madoff’s criminal behavior was when he was making fake trades and sells of his investor’s money. He was depositing every dollar he gained into his own bank account never actually trading or selling anything. People who think they aren’t doing anything wrong are simply investing their money into a man who is using it for criminal activity There are nine propositions of the causes of crime. The first cause is that criminal behavior is learned. Not all people may start out as criminals. The second cause is criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others in a process of communication, meaning they may watch other con-artists and how they achieve what they do and simply learn traits. The third cause is the learning of these traits usually happen in intimate groups, small groups of a trusted few. The fourth cause is when criminal behavior is learned the learning includes: techniques of committing the crime and specific direction of motives. Not only motives are learned but also different attitudes, drives, rationalizations etc. The techniques may be complicated or very simple. The fifth cause is the direction of motives is learned from definition. This means that if there are legal codes they are either favorable or non-favorable. The sixth cause of crime is the person starts to become defiant. There are so many definitions that the person starts to not care about favorable or unfavorable violations of the law. Thus, this brings us back to the theory of Differential Association. The seventh cause is the Differential Association’s may vary in many ways. The eighth cause is the process of learning criminal behavior. The ninth cause while this criminal behavior is just an expression of general needs and values it is not expressed the same as non-criminal needs and values. This means that the criminal uses this as an excuse that they committed these acts of violence because they needed the same values as people who don’t commit the crimes. 5
Now in time, scams are becoming more and more sophisticated. It’s becoming harder to figure out the people who are committing these scams because they are finding ways to commit these crimes without getting caught. Another example of a huge White Collar Crime case was the Enron Collapse. According to the blog, 10 White Collar Cases that Made Headlines, “Jeffrey Skilling, who served as president COO and CEO, along with a staff he assembled, hid billions of dollars of debt through poor financial reporting, accounting loopholes and the use of special purpose entities. “ This was just one of the people involved in this case that caused this destruction to take place. Above, the third cause of proposition explained that these criminal traits and doings usually happen in intimate groups, and that is exactly what happened in the Enron Collapse. It was not just one person there were multiple people who participated. The business was destructed by multiple business people with lies and mistrust. People are starting to lack trust in our stock markets because of these schemes that have been taking place. People are finding it hard to trust others to save their money because money is so crucial to living. The 1920’s for example had a huge stock fall and a great depression. Most of the banks ran out of money and with this, the people who invested their money into these banks also lost all of their money. People became furious and stopped investing their money into banks completely. Individuals who lived through this period of time explained that instead of investing their money into banks they either kept their money in secret places or even buried money into the ground. These are just a couple situations and reasons why people commit crimes dealing with the Differential Association Theory.

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Reference Page
Writers, S. (2011, June 5). 10 White Collar Crime Cases That Made Headlines - Criminal Justice USA. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.criminaljusticeusa.com/blog/2011/10-white-collar-crime-cases-that-made-headlines/
Lying, Cheating, and Stealing. (2010, March 17). Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar
Differential Association. (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/Theories/BAMdiffassn.htm
FILM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2nX3FdRyR0