Prisoners and their victims: Techniques of neutralization, techniques of the self

Abstract

Denial of the victim' is one of the five classic techniques described by Sykes and Matza in their seminal work on techniques of neutralization. Based on ethnographic field work in a Norwegian remand prison, this article explores this particular technique as it is employed by prisoners in their narratives about how they came to be imprisoned. I will argue that this particular technique of neutralization, understood by Sykes and Matza as part of the etiology of crime, might fruitfully be re-conceptualized as a Foucauldian technique of the self tailored to the specific context of the prison. As both moral space and rehabilitation technology, a prison positions its prisoners as 'immoral others' who should confess and repent. This ascription of low morality may in fact be seen as one of the pains of imprisonment. Given this, victims represent problems for prisoners, as 'having' a victim equals being someone who has hurt another. I will show the narrative strategies prisoners employ when they reconstruct themselves as moral subjects in relation to their victims.

Disciplining Freedom : Treatment Dilemmas and Subjectivity at a Detention Home for Young Men

“…Previous research has shown that despite the explicit power imbalance in detention homes and other forced-treatment (or incarceration) institutions, such as prisons, inmates do not simply submit to the power being imposed on them, but engage in more or less dramatic forms of resistance (see, for example, Bengtsson, 2012;Bosworth & Carrabine, 2001;Cesaroni & Alvi, 2010;Fox, 1999;Ugelvik, 2012). This dissertation confirms these previous findings, but contributes by specifically illuminating resistance through particular subject positionings.…”

“…For example, by engaging in rhetorical struggles about what a criminal is with CBT program facilitators and thereby resisting self-examination and change (Fox, 1999). Another example is resistance by engaging in practices that contribute to a more positive identity construction, for instance, by using neutralizations 2 when constructing narratives about their crimes (Ugelvik, 2012). These studies illuminate that subjectivities cannot be completely determined institutionally.…”

“…Inmates are supposed to transform themselves by accepting the truth about themselves and their actions, admitting guilt, and learning to avoid thinking errors (Fox, 1999(Fox, , 2001Ugelvik, 2012). Studies have also shown that inmates, however, do not remain submissive to these institutional transformation attempts, but engage in resistance in various ways.…”

“…Within CBT-based treatment for criminals, neutralizations are understood as a kind of thinking error that needs to be corrected. Ugelvik (2012), however, shows in his study that neutralizations can be viewed in a different light, namely, as a way for inmates to reconstruct themselves as moral subjects in a context where they are otherwise positioned as morally inferior.…”

Imposed Stories: Prisoner Self-narratives in the Criminal Justice System in New South Wales, Australia

“…This often conflicts with the expectation that they enact remorse in a self-denunciatory manner. As Maruna (2001) and Ugelvik (2012) have pointed out, prisoners' denial and disagreement with the official narrative may indeed be an essential part of the formation of the redemptive narrative most consistent with desistance.…”