DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION AND THE REHABILITATION OF DRUG ADDICTS*

Abstract

Five social psychological principles for the rehabilitation of criminals, formulated in this Journal by Cressey in 1955, have unwittingly been used in a program for rehabilitating drug addicts. Sixty-six per cent of the addicts who stayed in the program for at least three months, and 86 per cent of those who remained for at least seven months, are still not using drugs or alcohol. In 1955 Cressey listed five principles for applying Edwin Sutherland's theory of differential association to the rehabilitation of criminals.' While this article is now frequently cited in the sociological literature dealing with group therapy, therapeutic communities, and total institutions, we know of no program of rehabilitation that has been explicitly based on the principles. major point of Cressey's article, which referred to criminals, not addicts, is similar to the following recommendation by the Chief of the United States Narcotics Division: The community should restore the former addict to his proper place in society and help him avoid associations that would him to return to the use of drugs.2 Cressey gives five rules (to be reviewed below) for implementing this directive to restore, help, and influence the addict. These rules, derived from the sociological and social-psychological literature on social movements, crime prevention, group therapy, communications, personality change, and social change, were designed to show that sociology has distinctive, nonpsychiatric, theory that can be used effectively by practitioners seeking to prevent crime and change criminals. Sutherland also had this as a principal objective when he formulated his theory of differential association.3 Assuming, as we do, that Cressey's principles are consistent with Sutherland's theory and that his theory, in turn, is consistent with more general sociological theory, a test of the principles would be a test of the more general formulations. Ideally, such a test would involve careful study of the results of a program rationally designed to utilize the principles to change criminals. To our knowledge, such a test has not been made.4 As a next best test, we may study rehabilitation programs that use the principles, however unwittingly. Such a program has been in operation since 1958. Insofar as it is remarkably similar to any program that could have been designed to implement the principles, the results over the years can be viewed as at least a crude test of the principles. Since the principles are interrelated, the parts of any program implementing them must necessarily overlap. Synanon, an organization of former drug addicts, was founded in May, 1958, by a member of Alcoholics Anonymous with the assistance of an alcoholic and a drug addict. In December, 1958, Volkman (a non-addict) heard about the two dozen ex-addicts living 129 1 Donald R. Cressey, Changing Criminals: Application of the Theory of Differential Association, American Journal of Sociology, LXI (September, 1955), 116-20 (see also Cressey, Contradictory Theories in Correctional Group Therapy Programs, Federal Probation, XVIII [June, 1954], 20-26). 2 Harry J. Anslinger, Drug Addiction, Encyclopaedia Britannica, VII (1960), 677-79. I Edwin H. Sutherland and Donald R. Cressey, Principles of Criminology (6th ed.; Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1960), pp. 74-80. 4 See, however, Joseph A. Cook and Gilbert Geis, Forum Anonymous: Techniques of Alcoholics Anonymous Applied to Prison Journal of Social Therapy, III (First Quarter, 1957), 9-13. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Wed, 20 Jul 2016 06:12:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 130 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY together in an abandoned store, and she obtained permission of the Synanon Board of Directors5 to visit the group daily and to live in during the weekends. In July, 1959, she moved into the girls' dormitory of the group's new, larger quarters and continued to reside at Synanon House until June, 1960. Cressey (also a non-addict) visited the House at Volkman's invitation in the spring of 1960; for one year, beginning in July,