Edwin Hardin Sutherland (August 13, 1883 – October 11, 1950) was an American sociologist. He is considered one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century. He was a sociologist of the symbolic interactionist school of thought and is best known for defining white-collar crime and differential association, a general theory of crime and delinquency. Sutherland earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1913.
Early life
He was born in Gibbon, Nebraska. He graduated with an A.B. degree from Grand Island College in Nebraska in 1904. Afterwards, he was a high school teacher and teacher at University of Sioux Falls.
Sutherland solidified his reputation as one of the country's leading criminologists at the University of Minnesota, where he worked from 1926 to 1929. During this period, he concentrated in sociology as a scientific enterprise whose goal was to understand and control social problems. For several months in 1929 Sutherland studied the British penal system while in England. In 1935 he took a position at Indiana University, where he remained till his untimely death on October 11, 1950. Within differential association theory, Sutherland explains that criminal behavior can be learned through peer interaction with older people or more experienced criminals. Sutherland discussed that the intensity of an individual will also determine if a person will agree with their pro-criminal definitions. This latter element was dropped when the fourth edition was published in 1947.
He remained convinced that social class was a relevant factor, coining the phrase white-collar criminal in a speech to the American Sociological Association on December 27, 1939. In his 1949 monograph White-Collar Criminology he defined a white-collar crime "approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." The first two publications, in 1949 and in 1961, were heavily censored omitting names and an entire chapter. It wasn't until the publication in 1983 by Yale University Press the original uncensored version was made available. Differential Association has been one of the most cited criminological theories since it is applicable for many situations and behavior.