Neutralization theory

Neutralization theory, theory of criminal behavior proposed by criminologist Gresham Sykes and sociologist David Matza in the late 1950s that suggests that many young people who engage in delinquent behavior, or criminal offenses, generally subscribe to the mores of society but use justifications to neutralize any societal or self-disapproval and to preserve their self-image. Sykes and Matza argued that many people who engage in juvenile delinquency—a term considered pejorative in some contexts today and replaced...