Shame in regulatory settings

Abstract

How do people feel when they have broken the law? Does it make a difference whether their behaviour was also against their own values? And how does this feeling affect their response to regulatory action? As a consequence of questions like these, the moral emotions and their implications for regulatory systems have received increased attention within disciplines such as criminology, sociology and psychology. One reason for the revival of interest in shame, in particular, is John Braithwaite’s (1989; Ahmed et al. 2001) theory of reintegrative shaming. While the theory has its roots in sociological and criminological theory, it suggests that