Pro-Criminal Definitions
Definition
Attitudes, values, or verbal rationalisations that make law-breaking seem acceptable or desirable. Examples include neutralisation techniques (denying the victim, appealing to higher loyalties) and subcultural codes that celebrate toughness or anti-authority attitudes.
- Theory
- Differential Association / Social Learning
- Originator
- Edwin Sutherland
- Mechanism
- Neutralisation techniques
- Related concept
- Subcultural codes celebrating toughness
Common questions
How do pro-criminal definitions differ from simply approving of crime?+
They are learned rationalisations acquired through interaction with others, not innate approval. A person absorbs specific justifications from an excess of definitions favourable to violation over those unfavourable to it, per Sutherland's differential association theory.
What are neutralisation techniques an example of?+
Sykes and Matza's neutralisation techniques (denial of victim, denial of injury, appeal to higher loyalties, condemning the condemners, denial of responsibility) are specific verbal strategies offenders use before or after an act to suspend the moral bind of law, illustrating how pro-criminal definitions operate in practice.
Related terms
- Definitions (Social Learning)
- Attitudes or rationalisations that frame a behaviour as acceptable, justified, or necessary. In Akers's model, a high ratio of favourable-to-unfavourable definitions toward...
- Differential Association
- Sutherland's concept that criminal behaviour results from an excess of associations with pro-criminal definitions over anti-criminal definitions. The learning depends on the...
- Differential Reinforcement
- The balance of rewards and punishments, anticipated or actual, that follow a behaviour. If the expected rewards outweigh expected costs, the behaviour...
- Imitation
- Modelling one's behaviour on observed actions of others, especially admired or high-status individuals. Akers added imitation to Sutherland's original framework, explaining initial...
- Social Learning Theory (Akers)
- The reformulation of differential association in behavioural terms by Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966). It integrates differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement,...