The Adequacy of Differential Association Theory

Abstract

Differential association has been the most widely disseminated of the criminological theories, yet has remained untested. An in novation in the intellectual life of the theory has suggested a means of testing its adequacy but not its validity. Recent papers have suggested that the theory is inadequate by its failure to con sider nonsocial (noninteractive) determinants of behavior. This paper reports a review of empirical studies which allow the effects of social and nonsocial independent variables to be contrasted and a randomized two-factor design experiment of the effect of a social and a nonsocial variable on theft behavior. Both the experiment and the literature review suggest that nonsocial variables should be considered by theories of human behavior. The evidence does not support differential association theory.