VOCABULARIES OF MOTIVE

1. VOCABULARIES OF MOTIVE

2. C Wright Mills and Vocabulary of Motive • The problem: Why do “good” people do “bad” things? • The answer: People acquire ways of thinking that “release” deviant behaviours- they furnish motives. • Hence the term, “vocabulary of motive.”

3. Lyman and Scott on “Accounts” • VoM’s (per Mills) were invoked before engaging in deviance. • Lyman and Scott suggested that mental “accounting” often has to occur afterwards, as a form of defence. • L&S termed these defences “accounts.” • 2 distinct forms of accounts: • Excuses: “I know it was wrong, but…” • Justifications: “It wasn’t wrong, because…”

4. Sykes and Matza on “Drift” • The problem: Nobody is deviant all the time. • The solution: Persons “drift” in an out of deviant identities and behaviours by “neutralizing” their attachments to conventional morality.

5. Techniques of Neutralization • Denial of responsibility: “I am one of many.” • Denial of injury: “They’ll never miss it.” • Denial of victim • Depicting attacker as avenger: “I’m protecting my community.” • Alleging the culpability of abstract “perpetrators”: “Capitalism is the real evil here.” • Condemnation of condemners: “Who are THEY to accuse ME?” • Appeal to higher loyalties: “My religion instructs me.”

6. Some Applications of the VoM Perspective • Scully and Marolla on rapists’ VoM • Substance abuse and addiction • “Instant addiction” is a myth • Initial uses are unpleasant or ambiguous • VoM’s enable addiction in several ways: • Teaches that sensations are pleasurable • Teaches that recurrent use decreases unpleasant effects • Provides social support for addicts • Overall, drug use would be impossible without learning- crack does NOT “sell itself”