Joseph and Michael Kallinger and DAT (Differential Association Theory)

 

 

ABOUT THE KAILLINGERS

 

 

Joseph and Michael Kallinger were father and son. The two teamed up to form a deadly duo, Michael was in his early teens. Between 1974 and 1975 they murdered three people. They also tortured robbed and sexually abused others. On one occasion the father and son broke into a house where they beat and tortured 8 people. A 21  year old nurse, Maria Fasching, who was attending an elderly neighbour, was taken into a basement where her throat was cut  by Joseph and she was killed. the duo's crimes showed a clear pattern. They usually involved women being tied up, stripped and sometimes sexually abused. they also often searched the houses for valuables such as cash or jewellery. Neither Joseph nor Michael had lead a normal life. Joseph was abused as an adopted child and was pronounced paranoid schizophrenic. He had also spent several months in prison for abusing his children which may well have included Michael.

 

Differential Association Theory (DAT)

DAT was developed by Sutherland in 1939. It suggests that people develop criminal behaviour due to learning via interaction and association with other criminals.

 

This is summarised by 9 key points, here are some relevant examples:

1) Learnt behaviour; suggesting criminality is a product of nurture rather than nature

2) Interaction and communication; implies that rather than learning by observation alone we learn by interaction of both verbal and non-verbal exchanges

3) Intimate social groups; suggests that the people we are closest too are most influential in shaping our criminal behaviour

4) Techniques and attitudes; alongside the attitude towards crime the techniques towards committing the crime were also learnt

5) General mechanisms of learning; widely accepted mechanisms of learning are also applicable to criminal behaviour. For example, operant condition, which involves rewards versus punishments.

 

Application of DAT to the Kallingers

The previously mentioned points of DAT can be applied to the Kallingers as follows:

1) Learnt behaviour; Joseph Kallinger was an adopted child who went through childhood abuse. This suggests that this is what shaped his later behaviour, rather than being born with it.

2) Interaction and communication; as Michael and Joseph were father and son - they would have been interacting and communicating over a long period of time (for the whole of Michael's lifetime). This is where Michael would have learnt his behaviour and Joseph would have reinforced his own.

3) Intimate social groups; being father and son - Joseph and Michael were part of a close social group, this means that the behaviour of one would have been highly influential on the other.

4) Techniques and attitudes; Joseph would have learnt criminal behaviour such as abuse and violence from his adopted family. Michael would have learnt techniques such violence and theft shadowing his father.

5) General mechanisms of learning; operant conditioning is often seen in parenting. As Joseph and Michael were committing crimes together as father and son, it is highly likely that Joseph praised and positively reinforced any criminal behaviour in Michael; rather than punishing him. This therefore reinforced criminal behaviour in Michael.