Shaming Youthful Offenders: An Empirical Test of Reintegrative Shaming Theory.

Source: (2008) International Journal of Restorative Justice. 4(2):53-79.

This study used secondary data from the RISE project, which compared the effects of restorative conferencing with traditional court processing to test the theory of Reintegrative Shaming. A total of 249 cases were used to explore which factors related to the concept of reintegrative shaming were linked to lower projected offending of youthful offenders. The accuracy of the proposed Reintegrative Shaming theoretical model was examined through path analysis. There was partial support for the theory. First, Reintegration, Procedural Justice and Shame-Guilt were higher in conferences than in courts. Second, Procedural Justice and feelings of Shame-Guilt significantly lowered intentions of reoffending. However, contrary to the theory’s expectations, Reintegration affected projected recidivism only among conference participants, whereas Stigmatization and feelings of Unresolved Shame were not significant predictors in either setting. These findings suggest that reintegrative shaming may be a stronger predictor of conformity in restorative rather than in traditional, punitive contexts, and that the theory must be also tested in other, non criminal justice settings. (author’s abstract)