Assignment about What are Criminology?

1Running head: CRIMINOLOGY
Criminology
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
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2CRIMINOLOGY
Criminology (Assignment 4)
Part A
1. Neutralization
Neutralization is known as rationalization as well, which is defined as the excuses or
the justifications that can be presented by a person for showing deviant behavior. This aspect
has been mostly considered while explaining behaviors, for instance, embezzlement and
fraud. Hence, with growing importance, Sykes and Matza (1957) were the first scholars who
investigated this concept (Kaptein & van Helvoort, 2019). Sykes and Matza in the year 1957
identified five neutralization techniques, which involved ‘denial of the victim’, ‘denial of
responsibility’, ‘appeal to higher loyalties’, ‘condemnation of the condemners’, and ‘denial of
injury’ (Kaptein & van Helvoort, 2019).
An instance of ‘denial of the victim’ is exemplified when an offender accuses that it
was the fault of the child (victim). On the other hand, if the offender states that the offense
occurred when the situation was not in control or stated that it was not their fault, then it is
termed as the ‘denial of responsibility’ (Walters, 2002). Another neutralization technique is
the ‘appeal to higher loyalties’ wherein an offender gives an excuse that he or she had
committed the offense to protect the near ones. Besides, ‘Condemnation of the condemners’
is when an offender insists that other people do not have any right to condemn violations may
be because they are worse than him/her. Lastly, ‘denial of injury’ is when an offender gives
excuses that the victims have got so much that they will not realize any loss (Lilly, Cullen, &
Ball, 2018).
4. Crime
The logic behind “opportunistic crimes” is that, the offender or the criminals do not
strategize their attack in a detailed manner. This is because these types of offenders seek

3CRIMINOLOGY
opportunities to commit crimes and are found to be volatile during their execution (Zhang,
Gholami, Kar, Sinha, Jain, Goyal, ... & Tambe, 2016). For instance, stealing a Ute (Nolan,
2013). On the other hand, calculated crimes are those offenses that are strategized from
before such as drug or property offenses and are done for attaining profit. These types of
crimes are expected to reoccur when restrictive interventions are not present (Lin, 2007).
When it is compared to that of calculated crimes it can be said that ‘opportunistic crimes’
occur when there is opportunity given to the offender to violate the law whereas calculated
ones are those that are well-planned such as fraud and terrorist attacks (Zhang et al., 2016;
CBC, 2019).
The significance of this distinction is that the police authorities can control the
opportunistic crimes through regular patrolling in not only the crime-prone areas but also
other less likely regions. On the other hand, police department can easily track the calculated
crimes because it is likely to be repeated and, hence, they can concentrate on catching the
offender while executing the next offense (Zhang et al., 2016; CBC, 2019).