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Edwin Hardin Sutherland

Portrait: Edwin Sutherland
Edwin Sutherland

Author Details

Additional Information

Edwin H. Sutherland is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of modern criminology. He revolutionized the field by shifting attention away from biological and psychological explanations of crime toward social and environmental factors. His differential association theory laid the foundation for sociological approaches to deviant behavior by emphasizing that criminal behavior is learned through interactions with others. With his seminal work White Collar Crime (1949), Sutherland challenged the prevailing assumption that crime was largely a phenomenon of the lower classes, introducing a powerful critique of corporate and elite deviance. His efforts to define criminology as a scientific discipline helped institutionalize the field in American universities and continue to influence criminological theory and research today.

Key Works

White Collar Crime (1949), Principles of Criminology (1934), The Professional Thief (1937)

Recommended Reading

Abstract network visualization representing social interactions and connections central to differential association theory

Differential Association Theory (Sutherland)

Edwin H. Sutherland’s theory of differential association explains crime as a learned behavior acquired through social interaction. Individuals become delinquent when they are exposed to more definitions favorable to law violation than to definitions unfavorable to it. This approach moves…

Portrait: Edwin Sutherland

Edwin H. Sutherland – White Collar Crime (1949)

White Collar Crime, first published in 1949, is considered a groundbreaking work in criminology. In this study, Edwin H. Sutherland not only coined the term “white collar crime” but also expanded the definition of crime to include offenses committed by…