ABSTRACT

This paper identifies a form of non-compliance with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in the UK: “creative non-compliance”. Here, individuals justify breaking restrictions as meeting the “spirit of the law” if not the “letter of the law”. Drawing on interview and focus group data collected between April and August 2020, we outline this concept of “creative non-compliance,” detailing how: (i) our participants undertook a purposive construction of rules, (ii) balanced their behavior against these aims, and (iii) how Government messaging informed these rationalizations. We conclude by outlining the implications of our “creative non-compliance” theory both for studies of compliance and rationalizations for deviant behavior under the COVID-19 restrictions.

摘要

本文确定了英国不遵守 COVID-19 锁定限制的一种形式：“创造性的不遵守”。在这里，个人将打破限制视为符合“法律精神”而不是“法律条文”。根据 2020 年 4 月至 2020 年 8 月期间收集的访谈和焦点小组数据，我们概述了“创造性违规”的概念，详细说明了：(i) 我们的参与者如何进行有目的的规则构建，(ii) 平衡他们的行为与这些目标，以及 (iii) 政府信息传递如何为这些合理化提供信息。最后，我们概述了我们的“创造性违规”理论对 COVID-19 限制下异常行为的合规性和合理化研究的影响。