Question

Frankie and Johnny stole a Corvette and drove it around town for a few hours to show off to their friends. After being caught by the police, they explained that they were only borrowing the car to have a little fun and that no one was harmed by their actions. Frankie's and Johnny's behavior illustrates the technique of neutralization Sykes and Matza called ________.

Answer 1

Answer:

Denial of Injury

Explanation:

Sykes and Matza developed what they called “Neutralization and drift theory”. This theory analyzes the relationship between juveniles, the law and its trespassing. Sykes and Matza say that people need to minimize their sense of guilt when doing something against the law. According to this theory, there are five neutralization techniques to neutralize guilt when committing some kind of crime: 1) denial of Responsibility; 2) denial of Injury; 3) denial of Victim; 4) the Condemnation of the Condemners and 5) appealing to Higher Loyalties. In the example, Frankie and Johnnie steal the Corvette and they say it was only for a while and that nobody got harmed. This is a case of denial of Injury technique: they neutralize their guilt because they didn’t do any harm so, according to them, there weren’t any real victims.