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Cited by 771

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 220 of the 220 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research?

Maruna, Shadd, Copes, Heith·2005·Crime and Justice
DOI 10.1086/655355
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Abstract

Neutralization theory, though a popular framework for understanding deviant behavior, remains badly underdeveloped. Few attempts have been made to connect it to narrative and sociocognitive research in psychology and related fields. From this wider perspective, one reason neutralization theory has received only mixed empirical support is that it has been understood as a theory of criminal etiology. This makes little sense (how can one neutralize something before they have done it?) and makes the theory difficult to test. Neutralization should instead be seen as playing a role in persistence in or desistance from criminal behavior. The theory's central premises need to be substantially complicated. The notions that all excuses or justifications are "bad" and that reform involves "accepting complete responsibility" for one's actions are not tenable.

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Metadata

Authors
Maruna, S., & Copes, H.
Venue
Crime and Justice
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2005-01
Volume
32
Pages
221-320
ISSN
  • 0192-3234 (ISSN-L)
  • 2153-0416
DOI
10.1086/655355
OpenAlex
W2290583609
Cited by
771
References
220
FWCI
31.47
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/655355
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Maruna, S., & Copes, H. (2005). What Have We Learned from Five Decades of Neutralization Research? Crime and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1086/655355

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.