ABSTRACT
According to Ruth Kornhauser and others, differential association/social learning theory epitomizes "cultural deviance" theory. According to Kornhauser, the theory's assumption that "socialization is perfectly successful" leads to the further supposition that individuals are incapable of violating the cultural norms of any group to which they belong. Edwin H. Sutherland's theory does include cultural factors in its main proposition that norm-violating behavior of individuals is learned through their differential association with others supporting definitions favorable to criminal and deviant behavior. The cultural deviance critique depicts the differential association process in criminal behavior as one in which internalizing definitions favorable to crime "requires" the person to behave in violation of conventional norms and provides the "sole" motivation for behavior. Since the general conventional culture in modern society is not uniform and there are conflicts and variations among subgroups in society, the individual is likely to be exposed to different and perhaps conflicting cultural definitions of specific acts as good or bad.
