Modeling Sutherland's Theory of Differential Association: Toward an Empirical Clarification

We develop a theoretical model that attempts to state more precisely and to extend the concepts and ideas in Sutherland's theory of differential association as the prime factor in the genesis of crime. Parameters in the theoretical model are then estimated with respect to six different crimes using data from a large-scale survey of adults and employing measures of major concepts that apply to crime in general. Our results on the whole support Sutherland's claim—differential association plays a substantial role in all of the models. For five of the crimes, association with crime-favorable definitions increases criminal motivation which in turn increases the respondent's self-prediction of future criminal behavior. In the model for marijuana smoking, however, the effect of association on crime is much more indirect. We suggest a possible explanation for the differences between the results for marijuana smoking and for the other crimes.