In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior.
Learning Theory is closely related to the interactionist perspective; however, it is not considered so because interactionism focuses on the construction of boundaries in society and persons' perceptions of them.
Sutherland had developed the idea of the "self" as a social construct, as when a person's self-image is continuously being reconstructed especially when interacting with other people.
Phenomenology and ethnomethodology also encouraged people to debate the certainty of knowledge and to make sense of their everyday experiences using indexicality methods.
From a researcher's perspective, a subject will view the world very differently if employed as opposed to unemployed, if in a supportive family or abused by parents or those close to the individual.
However, individuals might respond to the same situation differently depending on how their experience predisposes them to define their current surroundings.
Differential association predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding.
To a greater or lesser extent, both non-criminal and criminal individuals are motivated by the need for money and social gain.
The amount of time that a person is exposed to a particular definition and at what point the interaction began are both crucial for explaining criminal activity.