Denial Of Injury Research Articles

Don't make excuses! Discouraging neutralization to reduce IT policy violation

Past research on information technology (IT) security training and awareness has focused on informing employees about security policies and formal sanctions for violating those policies. However, research suggests that deterrent sanctions may not be the most powerful influencer of employee violations. Often, employees use rationalizations, termed neutralization techniques, to overcome the effects of deterrence when deciding whether or not to violate a policy. Therefore, neutralization techniques often are stronger than sanctions in predicting employee behavior. For this study, we examine “denial of injury,” “metaphor of the ledger,” and “defense of necessity” as relevant justifications for violating password policies that are commonly used in organizations as used in (Siponen and Vance, 2010). Initial research on neutralization in IS security has shown that results are consistent regardless of which type of neutralization is considered (Siponen and Vance, 2010). In this study, we investigate whether IT security communication focused on mitigating neutralization, rather than deterrent sanctions, can reduce intentions to violate security policies. Additionally, considering the effects of message framing in persuading individuals against security policy violations are largely unexamined, we predict that negatively-framed communication will be more persuasive than positively-framed communication. We test our hypotheses using the factorial survey method. Our results suggest that security communication and training that focuses on neutralization techniques is just as effective as communication that focuses on deterrent sanctions in persuading employees not to violate policies, and that both types of framing are equally effective.

E-crimes: An Application of Neutralization Theory

Studies have argued that misbehavior of consumers is becoming increasingly prevalent in certain sectors. However, online consumer misbehavior is comparatively under-researched. The focus of the current study is peer-to-peer activities, including copying music, movies, software or video games: a phenomenon which affects the entertainment sector as a whole and costs the industry billions of pounds each year. Neutralization theory provides a potentially fruitful perspective from which to explore consumer justifications and rationalizations for their online misbehavior. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which peer-to-peer users employ techniques of neutralization to justify prior-to behavior or rationalize their activities post behavior. First, a review of online customer misbehavior is provided, followed by an overview of existing research into the techniques of neutralization. Following a discussion of the research methods employed, findings regarding the peer-to-peer online misbehaviors and neutralization techniques are presented. Data analysis reveals that peer-to-peer filesharers employ (often multiple) techniques of neutralization in order to pre-justify or post-event rationalize their activities, including: denial of victim; denial of injury; denial of responsibility; claim of normality; claim of relative acceptability; justification by comparison; and appeal to higher loyalties. The paper concludes with a series of implications for both theory and practice.

The effects of moral emotions and justifications on visitors' intention to pick flowers in a forest recreation area in Taiwan

This study examines the relationships between visitors' moral emotions and justifications and their intention to pick flowers in a forest recreation area. Moral emotions consist of guilt, embarrassment and shame. Justifications refer to the denial of responsibility, denial of injury and appeal to a descriptive norm. Self-reported data from 466 visitors to the Kenting National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan were collected by questionnaire and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that both moral emotions and justifications were significantly related to flower-picking intention. The stronger the visitors' moral emotions were, the weaker was their flower-picking intention, while the more effective their justifications for flower-picking were, the stronger was their flower-picking intention. The results suggest that if park managers want to deter visitors' flower-picking intention, the managers will have to develop persuasive strategies to facilitate their moral emotions and reduce their justifications. It is noted that strategies may not be universal but should vary according to the cultural beliefs of visitor groups.

Online consumer misbehaviour: an application of neutralization theory

Studies have argued that misbehaviour by customers is becoming increasingly prevalent in certain sectors. However, online consumer misbehaviour is comparatively under-researched. The focus of the current study is peer-to-peer activities, including copying music, movies, software or video games: a phenomenon which affects the entertainment sector as a whole and costs the industry billions of pounds each year. Neutralization theory provides a potentially fruitful perspective from which to explore consumer justifications and rationalizations for their online misbehaviour. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which peer-to-peer users employ techniques of neutralization to justify prior-to behaviour or rationalize their activities post behaviour. First, a review of online customer misbehaviour is provided, followed by an overview of existing research into the techniques of neutralization. Following a discussion of the research methods employed, findings regarding the peer-to-peer online misbehaviours and neutralization techniques are presented. Data analysis reveals that peer-to-peer file-sharers employ (often multiple) techniques of neutralization in order to pre-justify or post-event rationalize their activities, including: denial of victim; denial of injury; denial of responsibility; claim of normality; claim of relative acceptability; justification by comparison; and appeal to higher loyalties. The paper concludes with a series of implications for both theory and practice.

Neutralizing Music Piracy: An Empirical Examination

The current study sought to test the viability of employing Sykes and Matza's (1957) techniques of neutralization as a framework for understanding online music piracy. Using data from a sample of 2,032 undergraduates from a large Midwestern university, the relevance of neutralization theory is tested via multinomial logistic regression while controlling for other theoretical predictors and demographic variables. The findings indicated that greater acceptance of the techniques associated with denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, and appeal to higher loyalties significantly predicted moderate levels of piracy participation. Furthermore, the effect of appeals to higher loyalty on piracy was found to be conditioned by the respondent's approval of the behavior. Overall, results suggested that university settings may unwittingly facilitate a climate for online piracy whereby students place a higher value on group norms rather than legal norms and do not consider the harms associated with the behavior.

Public Accounts: Defending Contested Practices

Little attention has been paid to how actors account for controversial institutional conduct or contested practices. Relying on a content analysis of letters to the editor, I explore how actors operating in the Habermasian “public sphere” justify the contested practice of linking Native American symbols with sports teams, and suggest that in their rejection of challengers to their definitions of the situation, authors create public accounts. Consisting primarily of justifications rather than excuses, these accounts are of four types: “denial of injury,” “assertion of benefit,” “claim of authority,” and “rejection of challenge.” For those who wish to conduct comparative analyses of contested practices, these concepts may prove useful.

The nature and frequency of medicare/medicaid fraud and neutralization techniques among speech, occupational, and physical therapists

ABSTRACT The current study examines the nature and frequency of Medicare/Medicaid fraud and the techniques of neutralization utilized by a purposeful sample of speech, occupational, and physical therapists working within the context of hospitals, nursing homes, and with home health agencies, in a southern state. Participant observations, surveys, and in-depth interviews were utilized to obtain data for this study. We identified two main fraudulent practices, cutting sessions short while charging for the entire session and charging individual session rates for group therapy sessions. We also identified three techniques of neutralization utilized by the therapists in our study, including: (1) everyone else does it, (2) denial of responsibility, and (3) denial of injury. The implications of our findings are discussed.

The good mother: neutralization techniques used by pageant mothers

This study examines Sykes and Matza's (1957) techniques of neutralization through accounts by 43 mothers whose children participated in six national beauty pageants between September 1996 and May 1997. Respondents used "condemnation of condemners" most often followed by "denial of injury" with equal numbers using "denial of responsibility" and "appeal to higher loyalties." The "denial of victim" technique was not used by any respondents. The respondents were critical of the media's role in creating the "temporary deviant label."

Justifications for bullying among Japanese schoolchildren

The present research investigated the justifications for bullying as a function of the various roles that children assume in bullying. Contrary to expectations, most children judged bullying to be right or at least permitted regardless of their role in the episode. However, children with different types of involvement in bullying showed different justification strategies. In particular, bullies were more likely to blame the victims than were children assuming other roles. Gender differences were found in the justifications provided. Boys were more likely to blame the victims, whereas girls were more likely to engage in denial of injury. These results support the notion that justifications for bullying function to sustain bullying.

Vocabularies of motive for illicit steroid use among bodybuilders

Illicit steroid use, for purposes of performance and physique enhancement, is widely deemed unnecessary, wrong and dangerous. Such activity would appear especially foolhardy when engaged in by non-professional athletes who otherwise adhere to ‘healthy’ exercise regimens. Here a gap exists between many illicit steroid users’ actions and societal expectations. Using qualitative data generated in South Wales, this paper explores bodybuilders’ vocabularies of motive for illicit steroid use. These accounts which justified, rather than excused, steroid use were predominant during question situations between the participant observer and the researched. In supporting the fundamental tenets of their drug subculture, and as part of the underlying negotiation of self-identity, respondents espoused three main justifications for their own and/or other bodybuilders’ illicit steroid use; namely: self-fulfilment accounts, condemnation of condemners and a denial of injury. Here steroid use was rationalised as a legitimate means to an end, observers passing negative judgements were rejected and it was claimed steroids do not (seriously) harm the user's health or threaten society more generally. These vocabularies of motive, acquired and honoured within bodybuilding settings, comprise a complex of subjective meanings which seem to the actor to be an adequate ground for the conduct in question. Similar to other sociological studies, this paper states that it is imperative to explore the social meanings which illicit drug users attach to their ‘risk’ practices. Without these understandings, researchers and health promoters may struggle to appreciate fully why illicit drug users behave as they do.

Dogmen: The Rationalization of Deviance

AbstractDogmen are individuals who fight their pit bulls in matches against other pit bulls. This paper uses neutralization theory to examine the rationalizations of dogmen as they attempt to counter stigma and criminal identity in a world that is becoming increasingly intolerant of dogfighting. To maintain their rationalizations, the dogmen use four recurring techniques : (a) denial of injury;(b) condemnation of the condemners; (c) appeal to higher loyalties; and (d) a defense that says dogmen are good people (their deviance-dogfighting expunged by their good character). The authors conducted interviews with 31 individuals who fight and breed pit bulls and with significant others in the dogfighting enterprise, including Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) officials, veterinarians, and local law enforcement officers. The research also examined newspaper accounts of dogfighting. This article provides some insights into the social construction of reality of individuals who engage in an activity that most of us find reprehensible. As with any criminal/deviant behavior, understanding and subsequent solving of the problem begin with knowledge of the offender's perspective.

Topless dancers: Managing stigma in a deviant occupation

This paper describes and analyzes how topless dancers manage the stigma related to their deviant occupation. It represents approximately nine months of limited participant observation and ethnographic interviewing at seven topless bars in a major metropolitan city in the Southwest with a population of approximately 1 million people. A structured interview schedule was utilized to obtain data from over 40 topless dancers in six different clubs. In addition, free‐flowing interviews were conducted with at least 20 other dancers, numerous waitresses in the clubs, one club manager, two assistant managers, and four former dancers still associated with the clubs (as bartenders, waitresses, or admission takers). This study indicates that two of the most common stigma management techniques used by topless dancers are dividing the social world as outlined by Goffman (1963) and techniques of neutralization described by Sykes and Matza (1957), especially denial of injury, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties. Dancers further rationalize their participation in a deviant occupation on the basis that it is harmless, temporary, fun, good exercise, and easy money. Suggestions are made for future research on topless and nude dancing and stigma management.

Neutralizing in the workplace: An empirical analysis of property theft and production deviance

Using Sykes and Matza's (1957) “techniques of neutralization” paradigm, an adult sample of 9,175 retail, hospital, and manufacturing employees were examined to assess the empirical relationship of the concept with both self‐reported property theft and counterproductive deviant behavior in the workplace. Although the direction of causal order cannot be determined conclusively, above‐average employee rule breakers are significantly more likely than their less deviant peers to invoke guilt‐neutralizing techniques. The presence of age/ “denial of injury” and age/denial of victim” interactions, however, suggests that the workplace deviance of younger employees does not depend nearly as heavily on neutralizing techniques as does that of their older co‐workers. This newly discovered age interaction may explain why earlier researchers prematurely (and erroneously) declared invalid the “techniques of neutralization” paradigm.

Marketing ethics and the techniques of neutralization

The need for conceptual work in marketing ethics is addressed by examining the five techniques of neutralization as a means for partially explaining “unethical” behaviors by marketing practitioners. These techniques are often used by individuals to lessen the possible impact of norm-violating behaviors upon their self-concept and their social relationships. Borrowed from the social disorganization and deviance literature, the five techniques of neutralization are: (1) denial of responsibility, (2) denial of injury, (3) denial of victim, (4) condemning the condemners and (5) appeal to higher loyalties. Examples of marketing professionals using each of the five techniques are given, and a conceptual model linking the techniques of neutralization with “unethical” behavior is presented. Finally, relevant research questions are offered for consideration.

Woman Battering as a Social Problem: The Denial of Injury

Woman battering is conceptualised in various ways within the academic literature. Such theoretical accounts, often axiomatic rather than explicitly argued, have emerged co-extensively with the designation of woman battering as a contemporary social problem. There is, nevertheless, an ideological consistency between these theoretical accounts and the social responses to the 'problem'. This situation implies specific consequences for policy development and service delivery in the area of woman battering: the physical injury incurred by women within abusive relationships is often denied. Instead, the experience is often construed in terms of individual social welfare.