Sutherland, Edwin H.: The Professional Thief

Sutherland's Professional Thief

Much of the book was actually written by Conwell, but Sutherland edited it for publication and wrote two interpretive chapters. His analysis concluded that professional thievery has five basic features: technical skill, status, consensus, differential association, and organization.

• Technical Skill. Professional thieves (like bricklayers, lawyers, and physicians) possess a set of talents and skills. Some combination of wits, speaking ability, manual dexterity, specialization, and contacts is needed to plan and execute crimes, dispose of stolen goods, and manipulate the criminal justice system in those cases involving arrests.
• Status. Like other professionals, the professional thief holds a certain status based on ability, character, lifestyle, wealth, and power. Professional thieves often show contempt for amateur, small-time, and snatch-and-grab thieves.
• Consensus. Professional thieves share similar values and develop a philosophy or rationale regarding their activities and criminal specialty that aids them in their criminal careers.
• Differential Association. Professional thieves tend to associate chiefly with other professional thieves and to maintain barriers between themselves and members of “straight” society.
• Organization. Professional theft is organized in the sense that technical skills, status, consensus, and differential association entail both a core of knowledge informally shared by thieves and a network of cooperation.

Sutherland further concludes that the professional thief is a graduate of a developmental process that includes the acquisition of specialized attitudes, knowledge, skills, and experience; makes a regular business of stealing—it is his occupation or a principal means of livelihood; and identifies with the world of crime. The recruitment of persons into professional thievery involves a process of recognition, selection, and tutelage. Recognition by other professional thieves, according to Sutherland, is a necessary and definitive characteristic of the professional thief. Without such recognition, no amount of knowledge and experience can provide the criminal with the opportunities and contacts for a successful career in profit-seeking crime. In turn, after acquiring at least some recognition, selection (e.g., being recruited, vouched for) and tutelage (learning of skills, techniques, and attitudes favorable to theft through informal means) are interrelated and continuous processes in the course of more crime opportunities and advances to greater recognition and commitment to crime as “work” or a “business.” Sutherland and [Page 907]Conwell view professional theft as an occupation or business with much of the same internal organization and socialization processes as that characterizing legitimate professions like law, medicine, or carpentry. They

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