NCJ Number
161552
Date Published
1996
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This essay proposes "reintegrative shaming" as an alternative to traditional sanctions for offenders.
Abstract
For a well-socialized individual, conscience delivers an anxiety response to punish each and every involvement in crime, a more systematic punishment than haphazard enforcement by the police. Unlike any punishment handed down by the courts, the anxiety response happens without delay; for most of us, punishment by our own conscience is a much more potent threat than punishment by the criminal justice system. Shaming is critical as the societal process that underwrites the family process of building consciences in children. The conscience- building effects of shaming that give it superiority over control strategies based on changing the rewards and costs of crime are enhanced by the participatory nature of shaming. Whereas an actual punishment will only be administered by one person or a limited number of criminal justice officials, the shaming associated with punishment may involve almost all of the members of a community. Japan uses shaming reintegratively, as shaming ceremonies are followed by ceremonies of repentance and reacceptance. Shame operates at two levels to achieve social control. First, it deters criminal behavior because social approval of significant others is cherished; second, both shaming and repentance build consciences that internally deter criminal behavior even in the absence of any external shaming associated with an offense. 13 references