Personality and Method in the Differential Association Theory

Abstract

The reformulation of Sutherland's differential association theory by De Fleur and Quinney into set theory statements has added considerably to its clarification and to facilitating the processes of its verification by research inquiry. The work of these two authors has also made the theory consistent with the general concepts in contemporary sociology and social psychology; and their theoretical sets and subsets have paved the way for amplifying the basic theory by subhypotheses and criminal typologies. Basic questions on the original as well as the re formulated theory pertain to conceptions of a passive rather than a dynamic and active personality as the agent in criminal behavior, the function of the modes of learning in secondary as well as in primary groups, the influence of prior socializa tion in the development of criminal behavior, the role of the subject's interpretation of opportunities in contributing to overt criminal conduct, and the relationship of a closed theoretical system to exceptional and negative instances.