From Techniques of Neutralisation to Techniques of Normalisation: Reflections on the role of criminology in a post-truth and never-forgotten world.
From Techniques of Neutralisation to Techniques of Normalisation: Reflections on the role of criminology in a post-truth and never-forgotten world.
Taking theory from a predictable past and applying it to a precarious present allows us to reflect on the state of criminology in the current era. Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralisation is one of the foundational ideas of criminology and employed in different contexts beyond its original application. What we wish to propose is that there are techniques of normalising objectively illegal or immoral behaviour that have occurred in the last 30 years or so that have become increasingly blatant the more they can be demonstrated to
have happened and that excusing them away becomes pointless. This is a shift to shamelessness and of ‘alternative facts’. This normalisation reverses the original intention of Sykes and Matza, to take a criminal act and explain it away. It was built upon the idea that the offender still held values that could be compared to those who, theoretically, did not commit crime, they were just distorted, so-called subterranean values. The act is seen by both parties as
wrong and the guilty conscience that arises needs to be justified. In this adaptation, it is proposed that there are those who would wish to take the deviant act and make it normal, everyday or transformed into something else completely. The values are no longer subterranean, but in the open, even celebrated. This paper discusses this idea and reflects on what it might
mean for criminology in a post-truth and never-forgotten world.
Hamerton, Christopher
49e79eba-521a-4bea-ae10-af7f2f852210
Webber, Craig
35851bbe-83e6-4c9b-9dd2-cdf1f60c245d
30 July 2022
Hamerton, Christopher
49e79eba-521a-4bea-ae10-af7f2f852210
Webber, Craig
35851bbe-83e6-4c9b-9dd2-cdf1f60c245d
Hamerton, Christopher and Webber, Craig
(2022)
From Techniques of Neutralisation to Techniques of Normalisation: Reflections on the role of criminology in a post-truth and never-forgotten world.
British Society of Criminology Conference, University of Surrey, Surrey, United Kingdom.
28 Jun - 01 Jul 2022.
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Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Taking theory from a predictable past and applying it to a precarious present allows us to reflect on the state of criminology in the current era. Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralisation is one of the foundational ideas of criminology and employed in different contexts beyond its original application. What we wish to propose is that there are techniques of normalising objectively illegal or immoral behaviour that have occurred in the last 30 years or so that have become increasingly blatant the more they can be demonstrated to
have happened and that excusing them away becomes pointless. This is a shift to shamelessness and of ‘alternative facts’. This normalisation reverses the original intention of Sykes and Matza, to take a criminal act and explain it away. It was built upon the idea that the offender still held values that could be compared to those who, theoretically, did not commit crime, they were just distorted, so-called subterranean values. The act is seen by both parties as
wrong and the guilty conscience that arises needs to be justified. In this adaptation, it is proposed that there are those who would wish to take the deviant act and make it normal, everyday or transformed into something else completely. The values are no longer subterranean, but in the open, even celebrated. This paper discusses this idea and reflects on what it might
mean for criminology in a post-truth and never-forgotten world.
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Published date: 30 July 2022
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British Society of Criminology Conference, University of Surrey, Surrey, United Kingdom, 2022-06-28 - 2022-07-01
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Local EPrints ID: 468399
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468399
PURE UUID: 084d2101-f205-4d8a-8ff0-69b508ba2845
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Date deposited: 12 Aug 2022 21:17
Last modified: 30 Jun 2023 01:54
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