Crime

Crime is, despite everything, a rare event: it bears a risk of sanction; those who experience a sentiment of ‘relative deprivation’ can seek refuge in ritual and retreat and are very likely to do so if they have acquired a minimal social status which they run the risk of losing by engaging in ‘innovation’; finally the ‘innovation’ which deviance represents has every likelihood of coming to nothing if it does not meet with favourable circumstances, as we are reminded by an anecdote of Sutherland’s. Two young delinquents commit a larceny and are pursued by the police. The first, who has long legs, escapes. Covered with cold sweat at the thought of having risked prison, he settles down and becomes honest. The other is caught, thrown in prison, and there enters into contact with thieves and begins a criminal career. The Professional Thief by Sutherland, an admirable autobiographical account dictated to the sociologist, illustrates the role of ‘differential associations’, that is to say delinquent pseudo-organizations, in the confirmation of criminal careers. Sutherland’s thief starts with several casual thefts. As a result of his larcenies he meets an older delinquent who initiates him into picking pockets. But picking pockets is not very profitable, although it brings in more than individually committed thefts. It calls for a minimum team of two people. The first steals the desired object and immediately passes it to the second. The thief thus progressively discovers more and more complex techniques of thieving. At the same time, he discovers that the remuneration, not only material but symbolic, to which he can lay claim is a function of the complexity of the deed. In the milieu that he has started to penetrate, punishable offences are socially hierarchized. The shoplifter is the object of general contempt. Picking pockets, even though considered slightly better, is thought the act of seedy and incapable people. Burglary, which assumes knowledge, organization, and a precise execution, belongs in a higher level of the hierarchy. Before being permitted to progress to a higher level, the thief is put through a severe apprenticeship and possibly fails the test. His status and rewards will be according to the level to which he has been capable of raising himself. Sutherland’s story not only demonstrates the role of ‘differential associations’ in the reproduction of the criminal phenomenon (he writes ‘the efforts of repression tend to eliminate the professional thief, but leave the entire equipment in place’); it also confirms Merton’s hypothesis. Having become a delinquent by chance, the thief is drawn into a professional career in which he tries to climb the ladder, each rung climbed giving him additional status, power, and prestige.