One of the primary reasons that the Reid Technique is so successful in helping investigators resolve criminal investigations and to secure an acknowledgment of guilt from the offender is that the process is built on an understanding of human nature.

The core of the Reid interrogation process is “theme development,” in which the investigator presents a moral or psychological excuse for the subject’s behavior. The interrogation theme reinforces the subject’s rationalizations or justifications for committing the crime.

As part of an offender’s decision to commit a crime or, in the case of a spontaneous crime, following it, it is natural for him/her to justify or rationalize the crime in some manner. Psychologists refer to this internal process as “techniques of neutralization.” *

Gresham Sykes and David Matza first introduced the neutralization theory of criminology in the 1950s, and it focuses on how individuals who engage in criminal activity can justify their actions to themselves and others. According to the theory, criminals use techniques such as denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemners, and appeal to higher loyalties to neutralize the feelings of guilt or shame associated with their actions. This theory proposes that people who commit crimes often use techniques of neutralization to deflect responsibility for their actions and justify their criminal behavior.

“I didn’t really hurt anybody,” “They had it coming to them,” and “I didn’t do it for myself” are, as Sykes and Matza point out, examples of neutralizations. Neutralizations, also called rationalizations, are defined as justifications and excuses for deviant behavior.

Sykes and Matza identified five key techniques of neutralization:

The Five Techniques of Neutralization

1. Denial of Responsibility: Individuals who commit crimes may argue that their actions were beyond their control or that they were forced into committing the crime by circumstances beyond their control.
2. Denial of Injury: Individuals may argue that their actions did not cause any harm or that the harm caused was not significant enough to warrant punishment.
3. Denial of the Victim: Individuals may argue that the victim of the crime was deserving of the harm inflicted upon them.
4. Condemnation of the Condemners: Individuals may argue that the individuals or institutions that are punishing them are themselves corrupt or immoral.
5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties: Individuals may argue that their actions were justified because they were acting in the service of a higher moral or ethical principle.

According to criminal psychologist Shadd Maruna, Professor of Justice and Human Development at the Law School of Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, studies indicate that the majority of criminals either make excuses for or attempt to justify their actions.... "as a way to mitigate the guilt.”

Maruna: "Criminologists have interviewed every imaginable sample of individuals who break laws and found remarkable consistency in the use of what we call ‘techniques of neutralization’. There have been studies of deer poachers, terrorists, rapists, shoplifters, cyber hackers, murderers—you name it. And yet the individuals involved tend to use a very consistent and discernible number of post-hoc rationalizations to account for what they did."

“Neutralization theory” proposes that people who commit crimes often use techniques of neutralization to deflect responsibility for their actions and justify their criminal behavior. With this basic understanding of human nature in mind it is a very effective approach during an interrogation for the investigator to shift the blame for what the subject did onto the victim, an accomplice, or some other circumstance that prompted the suspect’s behavior because in most instances the subject has already done that in their own mind.

Over 62 years ago, in the first edition of their book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, authors John E. Reid and Fred E. Inbau recognized this core element of human nature - that when we do something wrong it is our “natural inclination” to shift the blame for our behavior to the victim, an accomplice or some other influencing factor - and developed an interrogation process called “theme development” in which the investigator offers the subject an excuse or “justification” for their behavior. When we develop themes, we are appealing to the subject’s pre-existing justifications, indicating that we understand them, which in turn makes them feel more comfortable telling us the truth about what they did.

Given the use of rationalizations by criminal offenders, the suggestion by an investigator that an accomplice talked them into committing the act under investigation, suggesting that the victim was accidentally shot, suggesting that the subject’s financial pressures caused him to act out of character, or blaming the victim for doing or saying something that provoked the incident are oftentimes simply justifications that the subject has already adopted.

The child molester who is sitting in jail is not thinking, “Yea, I’m where I belong” but rather, “I’m a misunderstood person … people don’t understand me…I loved those boys, and I would not do anything to hurt them.” The interrogation of such an individual would focus on how he loved these boys, that he was just trying to express his affection for them, and that he would never do anything to intentionally harm them.

When we develop themes, we are appealing to the subject’s pre-existing justifications so as to create an environment in which they feel that we understand them, which in turn makes them feel more comfortable revealing to us the truth about what they did. Consequently, one of the primary reasons that the Reid Technique is so successful in helping investigators resolve criminal investigations and to secure an acknowledgment of guilt from the offender is that the process is built on an understanding of human nature.

* Source: What is Neutralization Theory of Criminology? Its Relevance in Modern Times, Implications for Justice System and Criticisms written by By Anita Sharma, published in tSocial Science CriminologyLaw, March 23, 2023