Theorie der differentiellen Kontakte

Die von Edwin H. Sutherland erstmals explizit in seinen Principles of Criminology (in der Ausgabe von 1939) so genannte Theorie der Differential Association (Theorie der differentiellen Kontakte) ist ein lerntheoretischer Ansatz zur Erklärung von abweichendem Verhalten und Kriminalität, der seine endgültige Form dann in der 4. Auflage seines Lehrbuchs fand.

Die Theorie besteht aus neun Postulaten..

1. Criminal behavior is learned.

This means that criminal behavior is not inherited, as such; also the person who is not already trained in crime does not invent criminal behavior.

2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.

This communication is verbal in many cases but includes gestures.

3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.

Negatively, this means the impersonal communication, such as movies or newspaper play a relatively unimportant part in committing criminal behavior.

4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very simple; (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

5. The specific direction of the motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.

This different context of situation usually is found in US where culture conflict in relation to the legal code exists.

6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.

This is the principle of differential association. When people become criminal, they do so not only because of contacts with criminal patterns but also because of isolation from anticriminal patterns. Negatively, this means that association which are neutral so far as crime is concerned have little or no effect on the genesis of criminal behavior.

7. Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.

Priority seems to be important principally through its selective influence and intensity has to do with such things as the prestige of the source of a criminal or anticriminal pattern and with emotional reactions related to the association. These modalities would be rated in quantitative form and mathematical ratio but development of formula in this sense has not been developed and would be very difficult.

8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.

Negatively, this means that the learning of criminal behavior is not restricted to the process of imitation. A person who is seduced, for instance, learns criminal behavior by association, but this would not be ordinarily described as imitation.

9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values. Thieves generally steal in order to secure money, but likewise honest laborers work in order to money. The attempts to explain criminal behavior by general drives and values such as the money motive have been, and must completely to be, futile, since they explain lawful behavior as completely as they explain criminal behavior. They are similar to respiration, which is necessary for any behavior, but which does not differentiate criminal from noncriminal behavior. (Sutherland, 1974: 75-76)

Weblinks

• Edwin H. Sutherland. Differential Association Theory. Florida State University [1]