Tia Davis
Cromwell P., Thurman Q. 2017. “The Devil Made Me Do It”: Use of Neutralizations by Shoplifters. In Their Own Words.
Summary: Chapter 7 discusses about Shoplifters, neutralization theory, and basically the excuses of why people do it. The sample used in the study was a mixed population of 137 apprehended shoplifters, 48 men and 49 women. Nine techniques of neutralization are covered: 1) denial of responsibility (People believe they are victims of their environment); 2) denial of the victim (People think they are justify to retaliate against as deserving victim); 3) denial of injury (People perceive their behavior had not direct harmful consequences to the victim); 4) condemning the condemners (People project blame on the law-makers and law-enforcers who cannot live to their own standards); 5) appeal to higher loyalties (People use it to legitimize behavior coming from peers or by needs of one’s family); 6) defense of necessity (People argument they had no other option under the circumstances); 7) everybody does it (Here behavior is justified because of the widespread of similar acts); and lastly, two new ones were identified as justification by …show more content…
By most standards, stealing is considered morally wrong. Using the denial of responsibility, it could be said that one needed to steal to support their family. The denial of injury could justify that because no one knew anything had been stolen no harm is done. In blaming the victim, one could say the store was too easy to break into. To condemn the condemners, we could say that while we were caught, it does not matter because the authority figures are corrupt anyway. In appealing to a higher loyalty, one could say that someone above us made us thieve. I feel that any action can be justified in a way that makes the person look moral and that may help people be able to face society easier by using the techniques of
Cromwell P., Thurman Q. 2017. “The Devil Made Me Do It”: Use of Neutralizations by Shoplifters. In Their Own Words.
Summary: Chapter 7 discusses about Shoplifters, neutralization theory, and basically the excuses of why people do it. The sample used in the study was a mixed population of 137 apprehended shoplifters, 48 men and 49 women. Nine techniques of neutralization are covered: 1) denial of responsibility (People believe they are victims of their environment); 2) denial of the victim (People think they are justify to retaliate against as deserving victim); 3) denial of injury (People perceive their behavior had not direct harmful consequences to the victim); 4) condemning the condemners (People project blame on the law-makers and law-enforcers who cannot live to their own standards); 5) appeal to higher loyalties (People use it to legitimize behavior coming from peers or by needs of one’s family); 6) defense of necessity (People argument they had no other option under the circumstances); 7) everybody does it (Here behavior is justified because of the widespread of similar acts); and lastly, two new ones were identified as justification by …show more content…
By most standards, stealing is considered morally wrong. Using the denial of responsibility, it could be said that one needed to steal to support their family. The denial of injury could justify that because no one knew anything had been stolen no harm is done. In blaming the victim, one could say the store was too easy to break into. To condemn the condemners, we could say that while we were caught, it does not matter because the authority figures are corrupt anyway. In appealing to a higher loyalty, one could say that someone above us made us thieve. I feel that any action can be justified in a way that makes the person look moral and that may help people be able to face society easier by using the techniques of