Differential association theory is developed by Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess. They re-evaluated Sutherland’s theory about differential association using behaviorism. They tried to incorporate the psychological principles of operant conditioning and held the belief that even nonsocial effects can reinforce criminal behavior[1]. Burgess and Akers also cut down Sutherland’s nine propositions into seven propositions.
Here are the reasons why the incident can be explained by the differential reinforcement theory. First, the main reason that led to the gang member mauling the victim is that the victim persuaded Chan, who was bullied by the gangsters, to report to police. Therefore, the gangsters felt that the victim betrayed them and hence mauled the victim until he died. “Differential reinforcement is defined as the balance of anticipated or actual rewards and punishments that follow or are consequences of behavior”[2] (Criminology, 2012, p.79). The rewards of punishing the victim are the excitement and expression of their anger. However, Lu died after their torture and it was out of their expectation. After Lu’s death, the gangsters decided to burn Lu’s corpse and dumped it into a trash room in order to destroy the evidence and hence avoid being punished by the law.
Besides, in the beginning, the girls only watched the boys to maul Lu and did not involve in the incident, however, the girls later joined to maul Lu. This can also be explained by differential reinforcement theory. The girls joined to maul Lu because they want to avoid punishment from other gang members. Since they are the members of the gang, they may suffer punishments or discrimination if they did not join to beat Lu. Therefore, the girls maul Lu because of the peer pressure from other gang members.
One of the proposition of the theory is that criminal behavior is learned both in nonsocial and social situations. In the incident, the gangsters used the water pipes that was carved with their name on it, and read a poem while mauling the victim. This technique is similar to what the triads in cartoons do. The gangster may have watched the cartoon (nonsocial) before, and the violent cartoon conveys the brutal attitude to the gangsters, and from the cartoon the gangsters learned the specific techniques and attitude of criminal behavior. Therefore, the gangsters mauled the victim with the same method.
