Takatsuki Insurance Money Murder, Misappropriation of Remittance…Criminologist Sees “Commonality among Men
Theory of Neutralization: Criminals have the “ability” to justify themselves.
In April, a man committed suicide after he was arrested on suspicion of murder after inheriting an inheritance as an adopted child, and in April, a man spent 46.3 million yen of misdirected benefit money at an online casino.
The former was also after insurance money, but the insurance company was suspicious and did not pay it. Since the adopted man worked for the insurance company, he should have known that they would be suspicious, so why did he cause such a case?
Even for the man who spent the misdirected benefit money, he spent it only after the town hall asked him to refund it. It is clear from the fire that he is a criminal. Why would he do this?
Criminals justify themselves.” The man who spent the benefit money, according to some reports, said he spent it because he was unhappy with the attitude of the town hall people who asked for a refund at his place of employment and wanted to strike a blow. Even for the man who adopted him, he said, ‘I would have talked to you. He probably thought, ‘I could ask for compensation for that. This kind of thinking is called the “neutralization theory” in criminology.
This is what criminologist Nobuo Komiya calls the “theory of neutralization” in criminology. According to Komiya, the “neutralization theory” is applicable to all crimes.
What kind of things they use it for varies. Sometimes they shift the blame to their parents or friends, saying that it was their parents’ or friends’ fault that they came to do what they did. Sometimes they cheat people out of money, but deny any actual harm, saying, ‘A person who has 100 million yen in his pocket may as well get a million yen. Or, if they get a ticket for a traffic violation, they may say, ‘Catch someone worse than you,’ all based on the “neutralization theory.
But the man who adopted the child and the man who used the benefits are both at fault, no matter how you look at it, aren’t they?
That is the thought process of ordinary people, but people who commit crimes do not think so. They have a normal life, a conscience, and a sense of shame. The man who spent his benefit money moved to a place using an empty house bank, where he joined the community association and gave the impression that he was a nice young man. The man who adopted him is also said to have been a good communicator and had a good reputation at work.
They know what is wrong, but they justify their actions with self-serving theories, just as in a science experiment, when you mix acid and alkali, they neutralize each other. Some criminologists say that coming up with these excuses and theories is a kind of “gift.
It is said that the adopted man “had a tendency to speak from a superior perspective.
This is also a characteristic of those who are skilled in the “theory of neutralization. He is able to justify himself, so he must be very self-confident.
Generation Z excels at “neutralization theory
There have been many cases of people being cheated out of their benefits. Does this mean that more and more people have come up with the “neutralization theory”?
I have that impression. This theory was originally born in the U.S. In the individualistic Western world, people appreciate being able to justify themselves. In Japan, there is strong peer pressure, and when everyone else is on the right, it is difficult to say that you are going to the left. I think the influence of the Internet has been a big factor.
I think the influence of the Internet is also significant. There are a lot of opinions flying around on the Internet, and there are a lot of boastful stories of “I succeeded in cheating” and “I overstepped the mark.
Is Generation Z, which has had access to the Internet since birth, strongly influenced by the Internet?
Generation Z has been able to communicate with the rest of the world through the Internet, and they know that there are many different opinions in the world. Generation Z is aware that there are many different opinions in the world, and they are willing to speak up and say, ‘That’s not right,’ even about things that were considered normal in Japanese society until now. Although coming to have one’s own opinions is a positive aspect of Generation Z, it also makes it easier to exploit dissent as a theory of neutralization. In that sense, I think this type of crime will increase from now on.”
Crimes cannot be prevented by the “good sex theory” and “moral sense” peculiar to the Japanese.
That is troubling. Is it enough to punish the criminals more severely to reduce the number of crimes?
That is meaningless. Ordinary people are afraid of severe punishment, but criminals think they won’t get caught, so there is no point in making the punishment more severe.
So what should we do?
We should educate people that if you do something wrong, you will be caught, and what will happen if you are caught. In other countries, “citizenship education” is provided from junior high school onward, and students are taught realistically about what happens when they do wrong, get caught, go to trial, and go to jail.
In Japan, it seems that in moral education classes, we teach such things as “don’t bother others,” but I think it would be more effective to teach that “if you commit a crime, you will lose money,” instead of appealing to emotions like that.
One way to prevent crime is to promote the use of information technology and the development of a town with strong crime prevention capabilities.
The benefit fraud that has occurred in recent years can be reduced by digitizing the application and screening process.
It is also important to create a town that eliminates opportunities for crime, such as designing streets in a way that makes people think they might be seen.
What can be done to prevent people from being duped?
There is a story that a man who adopted a child had taken out an insurance policy earlier in an act that resembled marriage fraud.
Neither the marriage scam nor the person who tries to take the child away succeeds the first time. They improve their skills through repeated failures and experience, such as, ‘This way of speaking will make the other person dislike me,’ or ‘This way of speaking will make the other person like me.
In order to counter the criminal reserve army, which is improving its skills every day, it is also important to incorporate debating classes.
Debate is a battle of self-justification,” he said. If someone says, ‘I don’t mind taking a million yen from someone who has a hundred million yen,’ the question is, ‘Well, how would you feel if a stranger took 100 yen or even 10 yen from you? If you can’t say it back, you are playing right into their hands.
Even if you hear a good story, you have to get into the habit of thinking about it from a different point of view, asking yourself if the story is true, and steadily working on it one by one.
Nobuo Komiya Professor of Criminology at Rissho University. D. in sociology. He was the first Japanese to graduate from the Graduate School of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. Formerly worked at Honda Motor’s Information Systems Division, the United Nations Institute for Far East Crime Prevention in Asia, and the Legal Research Institute of the Ministry of Justice before assuming his current position. He is a second-class information processing engineer (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). Inventor of the “Community Safety Map. He has served as the chairperson of the National Police Agency’s Research and Study Group on Safe and Secure Community Development and the chairperson of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Delinquency Prevention and Victimization Prevention Education Committee.
His representative publications include “Crime Prevention in the World through Photographs: Ruins, Design, and Community Planning” (Shogakukan, selected book by the National School Library Association), “Crime Can Be Predicted” (Shincho Shinsho), NHK “Close-up Today,” Nippon Television “Sekaiichi uketai jugyo” (The Class I Want to Attend), etc. He has appeared on television, been interviewed by newspapers, and given numerous lectures throughout Japan.
Click here for “Nobuo Komiya’s Criminology Room” on hiswebsiteandYouTube channel.
Interview and text by： Izumi Nakagawa
