ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origin and development of Edwin H. Sutherland's differential association theory. It also examines the origins of differential association theory and shows how it evolved with Sutherland's development as a criminologist. Sutherland thought that, compared to American sociology, criminology in the 1920s and early 1930s was in dire need of new ideas and direction. He rejected biological determinism and the extreme individualism of psychiatry, as well as economic explanations of crime. His search for an alternative understanding of crime led to the development of differential association theory—a theory which both increased the prominence of American criminology and made the sociological influence on it profound. The influence of Sutherland's theory is made all the more important by virtue of the recent reemergence of classical criminology, stressing insufficient punishment as the cause of crime, and by the even more recent resurfacing of claims emphasizing genetic origins of criminal behavior, thus implying biological initiatives in crime control.
