Neutralization vs Account

Neutralization is the theory, in which, expresses an explanation of how a person is able to commit a negative action, knowing the action is wrong, and yet, continue to do so. Society has developed itself into taking shape of a grave mixture of cultures. Overtime, these cultures developed their own unique “norms” and distinctively laid out their own expectations for people to follow. Matza and Sykes have formed 5 “get out of jail free cards”, known as the techniques of neutralization, that persons who have neutralized a situation might use as an explanation:

1) Denial of responsibility- Claiming that the actions were only done because there were no other options available.

2) Denial of injury- There was no problem because the actions caused no harm or danger.

3) Blaming the victim- The actions that where committed were inappropriate but the victim brought it upon themselves.

4) Condemn the condemners- Relinquishing all of our guilt and pointing the finger back at the original finger pointer, as this is where all of the “bad actions” began.

5) Appealing to a higher loyalty- A ranking of our moral values or code of conducts on a scale and breaking some of them, in order to fulfill others that we find to be more important.

By following these simply rationalities, it is easy to see how an individual can explain to themselves and other why what they did wrong, was actually okay in their mind.

According to Scott and Lyman, an account is a” linguistic device employed whenever an action is subjected to valuative inquiry.” Accounts occur when people talk to other people, or themselves, to explain the things that they are doing. Not every question evokes an account to occur. Only questions that involve a connection between what the subject of the conversation is and what wider moral values might come into play are accounts.

There are two types of accounts: excuses and justifications. Excuses are the vocabularies which allow people to try to ease or relieve their...