Edwin Sutherland: Early Influential Criminological Theory

Edwin Sutherland was an early influential criminologist who believed in differential association. Differential association is a sociological theory, unlike previous theories that emphasized inherited criminal behavior, that describes criminal behavior being learned through associations and communication. Sutherland believed that genetic inheritance, social pathology, biological characteristics, and personalities were not enough to support a connection between criminal behavior and the average person (Chapter 8, Theories of Social Process and Social Development, pg. 197). So, Sutherland discovered nine principles that connection criminal behavior to an average person. The nine principles include, “(1) criminal behavior is learned, (2) criminal

This can be verbally or non-verbally (observations). In the videos, we can see this principle being shown through the White’s family gathering in their living room. We saw them smoking pot, drinking, bringing out guns, taking their clothes off, and cursing with each other, and with children around. All of them actively participating in these acts, as well as talking about them, corresponds to Sutherland’s second principle about criminal behavior being learned through verbal and non-verbal interactions. The adults are learning it through verbal interactions and active participation in smoking, drinking, and cursing, and the children are learning it through non-verbal interactions and observations of their family members doing these

All the members of the White family had some involvement with illegal behavior, whether that was drugs, shootings, robberies, fights, etc. Bertie, the mother of most of them, didn’t engage with these behaviors as much or as frequently. She raised over 34 kids, some of which were hers and some of which weren’t. There was one specific scene in the video where two members of the White family are smoking pot on the couch next to Bertie and she attempts to get up and leave, but they’re holding her back and messing with her. This example highlights the seventh principle in that while illegal behavior is common throughout the White family, the frequency, duration, and intensity between one person to the next varies. And that just because you’re related to someone with high criminal tendencies, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll acquire the same