Reintegrative Shaming Project Paper

Reintegrative Shaming Project
Team B
CJA/314
Instructor: Gregory Mc Clelland
25 August 2014

Reintegrative Shaming Project

There are two programs that we can look into in hopes to help offenders reduce recidivism. Looking into one of these programs will help offenders to begin to feel confident and want something better for themselves. They will want to become a positive part of society and possibly help in ways to keep others from starting a life of crime. As a society, we want to figure out ways to ensure our communities are safe especially for our children. What options do we have to ensure this? What can we do or create to keep recidivism from happening? Well let’s create a program in which we use either reintegration
For the offender to become a successful participant in the Reintegrative Shaming and Forgiveness Program he or she must engage in the shaming process, reintegrate through compliance by means of conferences, accept forgiveness, and continue deterrence by behaving within the programs “sets of standards.” The forgiveness program seeks to determine the means of deviance, validate the defiance, and eliminate the defiance. Some of the most influential aspects of this program are aimed at retying the bonds between the offender and society and between the offender and their family. The purpose of this program serves three goals, (1) allows the offender to maintain a relationship of respect with society, (2) keeps the offender out of the criminal court processes, and (3) avoids secondary
Social chain theories include but are not limited to Social Structure Theories Social Process and Social Development Theories, and Social Conflict Theories. We understand that not all juveniles come from the same background, have the same family structure, and have the same developments (mental, physical, emotional, and psychological). Over the more recent years, reintegrative shaming has been regarded as much more effective in controlling crime, and the general conclusion was that condemning the offence rather than the offender has much more positive consequences, while the offender is being reintegrated, rather than rejected by society. On the other hand, “one of the primary draws of the shaming sanction is the power of shame in society. It is hard to underestimate the power of social disapprobation” (Netter, 2005, p. 28). Because we are social creatures and we rely on our family and friends networks, any broken links in those networks trigger traumatic events. Introducing reintegrative shaming as a measure to control the recidivism could potentially educate specific offenders morally, without creating more imbalances in their social norms, by taking into consideration their norms and by focusing the penalty on an individual’s specific failings.