ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Edwin H. Sutherland's career from 1929, when he worked at the Bureau of Social Hygiene, until 1935, when he was forced to leave the University of Chicago. It focuses on four events important in the development of the theory of differential association. First, the publication of the Michael-Adler Report, which criticized contemporary criminological theory and research, goaded Sutherland to develop a scientific theory of criminal behavior. Second, a meeting called by Dean Beardsley Ruml of the University of Chicago to ascertain the present status of criminological knowledge forced Sutherland to conclude that positive generalizations about the cause of crime could not be stated with any confidence. Third, his work on The Professional Thief helped him to see a common process present within all crime. And fourth, Sutherland discovered the value of using Charles H. Cooley's work on social process as an approach by which to formulate a tentative explanation of criminal behavior.
