David Matza and Gresham Sykes worked together to create neutralization theory. They claimed that people can engage in crime and at the same time consider themselves members of conventional society. People are in a state of drift between criminal and conventional behavior. Even hardened criminals can also at the same time be students, attend parent-teacher meetings and church, etc. This is possible because people use techniques of neutralization¸ or justifications for their illegal behavior.

By using these techniques, offenders make the crime appear less serious, and feel like they are still members of conventional society:

1. Denial of responsibility: The offender denies that the criminal act was their fault. He claims that the crime was the responsibility of outside forces, like peer pressure, or parental abuse.
   
   
2. Denial of injury: The offender claims that her actions didn’t hurt anyone. For example, she may claim that stealing is actually borrowing.
   
   
3. Denial of the victim: The offender claims that the victim deserved what he/she got. The offender may justify her wrongdoing by saying that the victim was a bad person, a cheater, an unfair teacher, etc.
   
   
4. Condemnation of the condemners: The offender believes that her action was justified because the whole world is corrupt. She believes that the police, the school authorities, are all corrupt.
   
   
5. Appeal to higher loyalties: The offender committed the crime out of loyalty to someone or to some idea. For example, the offender may be loyal to his friends, the "criminal code," etc.