Social status and shaming experiences related to adolescent overt aggression at school

Feelings of rejection and humiliation in interpersonal interaction are strongly related to aggressive behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between social status, shaming experiences, gender and adolescent aggressive behavior by using a status-shaming model. A population-based sample of 5,396 adolescents aged from 15 to 18 completed a questionnaire that asked questions regarding psychosocial background, shaming experiences, social status of family, peer group and school and involvement in physical or verbal aggression at school. Shaming experiences, i.e. being ridiculed or humiliated by others, were strongly related to aggressive behavior. Social status and shaming were related in the prediction of aggressive behavior, suggesting that a person's social status may influence the risk for taking aggressive action when subjected to shaming experiences. Medium social status seemed to have a protective function in the association between shaming experiences and aggression. This study confirms the importance of further evaluation of the role of perceived social status and shaming experiences in the understanding of aggressive behavior. Moreover, the results indicate the need for different kinds of status measures when investigating the associations between status and behavior in adolescent populations. The results may have important implications for the prevention of bullying at school as well as other deviant aggressive behavior among adolescents.     

Reintegrative Shaming Theory, moral emotions and bullying

This article investigates the usefulness of Reintegrative Shaming Theory (RST) in explaining the bullying of siblings in families and peers in schools. Questionnaires were completed by 182 children aged 11-12 years in ten primary schools in Nicosia, Cyprus, about sibling and peer bullying. A vignette-based methodology was used to investigate children's expectations of the type of shaming their parents would offer in response to their possible wrong doing. Children were also asked questions about the emotions they would have felt (i.e. shame, remorse, guilt or anger) if they were in the position of the child in the vignette. The level of bonding toward each parent was also examined. In agreement with the theory, a path analysis showed that mother bonding influenced children's expectations of the type of shaming offered by parents. Disintegrative shaming (i.e. shaming offered in a stigmatizing or rejecting way) had a direct effect on the way children managed their shame. Shame management directly influenced sibling and peer bullying. Father bonding had no direct or indirect effects in the model. Against the theory, reintegrative shaming (i.e. shaming offered in the context of approving the wrongdoer while rejecting the wrongdoing) did not have a direct effect on shame management. Beyond the postulates of RST, mother bonding-a plausible indicator of family functioning-had a direct effect on sibling and peer bullying. Mother bonding had a stronger effect for boys than for girls. It is concluded that RST is useful in explaining the link between family factors and bullying, and that RST has cross-cultural applicability.     

Differentiating stranger murders: profiling offender characteristics from behavioral styles.

The literature on "offender profiling" suggests that different "styles" of homicide will reflect differences in the background characteristics of the offender. To test this suggestion, hypotheses were drawn from studies of aggression to propose that murder crime scenes would reveal stylistic distinctions in the role of the aggression in the offense. It was further hypothesized that these distinctions would be clearest for those crime scene indicators that reflect the instrument (cognitive) actions that shape the offense rather than the more expressive (impulsive and emotional) components. Hypotheses about associated offender characteristics were also deduced on the assumption that the murder scene theme revealed the killers' typical styles of interpersonal transaction. To test these hypotheses MDS analyses were carried out on the crime scene and offender characteristics derived from 82 single offender, single victim stranger homicides. A multivariate structure resulted, including all three hypothesized styles, allowing 65% of the cases to be assigned to unique styles and a further 36% to be assigned to appropriate hybrids. Offender characteristics related in the anticipated way to the different crime scene styles, providing a basis for law enforcement inferences about offenders in stranger murders.     

Shame On You,Shame On Me? Nussbaum on Shame Punishment

abstract Shame punishments have become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional punishments, often taking the form of convicted criminals holding signs or sweeping streets with a toothbrush. In her Hiding from Humanity, Martha Nussbaum argues against the use of shame punishments because they contribute to an offender's loss of dignity. However, these concerns are shared already by the courts which also have concerns about the possibility that shaming might damage an offender's dignity. This situation has not led the courts to reject all uses of shaming, but only to accept shaming within certain safeguards. Thus, despite Nussbaum's important reservations against shame punishments, it may still be possible for her to accept shaming within specific parameters such as those set out by the courts that protect the dignity of an offender. As a result, she need not be opposed to the use of legitimate shame punishment.     

When Shaming Is Shameful: Double Standards in Online Shame Backlashes

Recent defenses of shaming as an effective tool for identifying bad practice and provoking social change appear compatible with feminism. I complicate this picture by examining two instances of online feminist shaming that resulted in shame backlashes. Shaming requires the assertion of social and epistemic authority on behalf of a larger community, and is dependent upon an audience that will be receptive to the shaming testimony. In cases where marginally situated knowers attempt to “shame up,” it presents challenges for feminist uses.     

Shaming and Unreasonable Shame in the Book of Job1

While the philosophical study of shame has gained popularity, its application in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible remains in its early stages. This paper delves into an analysis of shaming and unreasonable shame in the Book of Job, particularly in chapter 19. Through an examination of the Hebrew text and drawing on contemporary philosophical definitions of shame and shaming, I argue that Job perceives his friends, God, and the community to be employing shaming tactics against him, attempting to induce feelings of shame, a sentiment Job considers unjustified. In his case, shame is deemed unreasonable because Job has not violated any cherished values that would warrant such an emotion. Additionally, I demonstrate that while Job senses God shaming him, the biblical character acknowledges that his deity is the sole entity aware of his innocence—God's eyes perceive accurately, in contrast to humans', which only assess outward appearances. The role of God as the perfect witness to Job's life is fulfilled in the epilogue of the book, where Yahweh vindicates Job from the shame he has endured by publicly denouncing the serious faults of his friends.     

On the Edge of Reason? Armed Robbery,Affective Transgression,and Bounded Rationality

Based on interviews with convicted armed robbers, this article presents their self-reported motivations. Aside from anticipated monetary reward, some of the distinctive foreground qualities of armed robbery, including hedonic thrills, fear arousal and control are revealed. The concept of “crime as defibrillation” is introduced to account for the sensory surge craved by these men to counter a life of systematic structural exclusion, dysphoria, and lack of prospect. Suffering from sensory asystole, it is only the most extreme and risky behavior, in the form of serious violent crime, that can revive a life otherwise flatlining and out of control.     

Unpacking the Role of Conflict in Peer Relationships: Implications for Peer Deviance and Crime

ABSTRACT

Although criminologists have long recognized the role that peers play in crime, the specific mechanisms responsible for this relationship have been difficult to isolate. Drawing from the perspectives of differential coercion and social support and differential association, we examine how one type of coercion among friends – conflict – moderates the peer deviance/crime relationship. Using dyadic data, greater levels of conflict are related to higher levels of deviance and conflict weakens the peer deviance–crime relationship. Overall, conflict plays a dual role by relating to higher amounts of deviance while jointly reducing the influence of peer deviance on crime.     

Substance use patterns of young offenders and violent crime

The use of alcohol is a significant predictor of the involvement of young offenders in violent crime. This study found that in a sample of 300 incarcerated juveniles in New South Wales, more than 70% admitted to violent crime. Detainees from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture were less likely than other detainees to be involved in violent crime. The substances most associated with violent crime were alcohol, followed by cocaine. However, when the likelihood that the young person has initiated violence as a response to alcohol or other substances is introduced into the equation, the direct effects for alcohol and cocaine predicting engagement in violent crime disappear. The Goldstein hypothesis that the effects of a substance directly facilitate violence, thereby accounting for the relationship between substances of use and violent crime, was supported. Aggr. Behav. 29:414–422, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Shame,Stigma, and Disgust in the Decent Society

Would a just society or government absolutely refrain from shaming or humiliating any of its members? “No,” says this essay. It describes morally acceptable uses of shame, stigma and disgust as tools of social control in a decent (just) society. These uses involve criminal law, tort law, and informal social norms. The standard of moral acceptability proposed for determining the line is a version of perfectionistic prioritarian consequenstialism. From this standpoint, criticism is developed against Martha Nussbaum’s view that to respect the dignity of each person, society absolutely must refrain from certain ways of shaming and humiliating its members and rendering them objects of communal disgust.     

Low Self-Control Versus the Desire-For-Control: An Empirical Test of White-Collar Crime and Conventional Crime

Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) general theory of crime has been used to explain a wide variety of criminal and analogous behaviors, yet the few studies that have tested its ability to account for white-collar and corporate offending have yielded mixed results. One response to these mixed findings has been to explore the possibility that unique attributes may predict white-collar and corporate offending. In this vein, limited research examining the relationship between desire-for-control, a similar yet competing construct as low self-control, and corporate crime has revealed desire-for-control to be a stronger predictor of corporate crime than low self-control. The current study expands on existing research by examining the relationship between desire-for-control and low self-control in predicting conventional offending, white-collar or occupational offending, and corporate offending. Results indicate that desire-for-control is a stronger predictor of white-collar and corporate offending than low self-control, but that, as expected, this relationship does not hold true for conventional crime. Theoretical implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Relationships between parenting practices and perceptions of child behaviour among Korean immigrant mothers and fathers

This study examined parenting styles and culturally‐specific parenting practices of Korean immigrant mothers (N = 128) and fathers (N = 79) of children (ages 6–10) in New Zealand and the parenting predictors of child behaviour. Participants completed questionnaires on parenting styles and practices, and parental perceptions of child behaviour. Both parents indicated a high degree of devotion (Mo jeong) and involvement in care and education of their child with fathers were more likely than mothers to utilise shaming/love withdrawal and modesty encouragement. Results of regression analyses showed that there were some differences between mothers and fathers in the parenting predictors of child internalising and externalising behaviour problems and prosocial behaviour. Across the whole sample, there were contrasting relationships for authoritative parenting styles, devoted/involved parenting and modesty encouragement/shaming/non‐reasoning parenting practices with child behaviour problems. Results indicated a blend of Western and Korean parenting practices were being utilised after settling in New Zealand.     

Shame and the Solitary Way

In “Shame, Ministry, and Theological Education: Leaves from the Notebook of a Defiant Seminarian,” (Nathan Carlin, Pastor Psychol, 53:501–514, 2005) discusses the fact that many young adult Christians are highly influenced by relativism of all sorts, and notes that this can lead them to a state of doubt. He points out that if they voice their doubts too loudly, they are often shamed and abandoned by their elder Christians who do not have or do not voice their own doubts. He cites examples of the shaming to which he was subject when he was a seminarian at Princeton Theological Seminary. In this article, I discuss my own experience of being shamed as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, and suggest that although such shaming is immediately painful, it may have an unintended, long-term benefit for the one who is the subject of shaming, specifically, in the development of a faith that is unmistakably one’s own.     

Alibi Believability: The Effect of Prior Convictions and Judicial Instructions

Undergraduates (N = 339) listened to a simulated police interview with a defendant concerning his alibi. We studied the impact of (a) the strength of the alibi evidence; (b) defendant's prior convictions; (c) judge's instructions on prior conviction evidence; and (d) perceivers' need for cognition (NFC) on alibi believability and defendant guilt ratings. Defendants previously convicted of the same crime as the current charge were seen as more likely to be guilty than defendants previously convicted of a different crime. Judge's instructions did not affect guilt ratings. NFC was less influential than anticipated, but did affect participants' understanding and recall of judicial instructions. Strong alibis were seen as more believable and led to lower guilt ratings than weak alibis.     

Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help for an Eating Disorder: The Role of Stigma and Anticipated Outcomes

This study examined the relationship between self‐stigma, anticipated risks and benefits associated with seeking counseling, and attitudes toward seeking counseling among college students with disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that self‐stigma and the anticipated risks and benefits significantly predicted attitudes toward counseling for people with disordered eating. In addition, self‐stigma had a stronger relationship with men's attitudes toward counseling than with women's, and anticipated benefits had a stronger relationship with women's attitudes toward counseling than with men's.     

Putting a Price Tag on Security: Subjective Well-Being and Willingness-to-Pay for Crime Reduction in Europe

Using information on life satisfaction and crime from the European Social Survey, we apply the life satisfaction approach (LSA) to determine the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB), income, victimization experience, fear of crime and various regional crime rates across European regions. We show that fear of crime and criminal victimization significantly reduce life satisfaction across Europe. Building upon these results, we quantify the monetary value of improvements in public safety and its valuation in terms of individual well-being. The loss in satisfaction for victimized individuals corresponds to 24,174€. Increasing an average individual’s perception within his neighborhood from unsafe to safe yields a benefit equivalent to 14,923€. Our results regarding crime and SWB in Europe largely resemble previous results for different countries and other criminal contexts, whereby using the LSA as a valuation method for public good provision yields similar results as stated preference methods and considerably higher estimates than revealed preference methods.     

Defendant's Attractiveness as a Factor in the Outcome of Criminal Trials: An Observational Study1

Observers rated the physical attractiveness of 74 defendants in criminal court, covering a broad range of offenses. Seventy-three usable cases were obtained. For 67 defendants (excluding those who had drawn “flat sentences” of 99–199 years), attractiveness was predictive of both minimum and maximum sentences (p <.001)-the more attractive the defendant, the less severe the sentence imposed. No significant relationship was found between attractiveness and conviction/acquittal, although seriousness of the crime was found to correlate negatively with attractiveness (p <.01)). Race of the defendant showed a systematic relationship to punishment, with nonwhites drawing consistently more severe sentences than whites; a multiple regression analysis using attractiveness, race, and seriousness of crime as predictors of punishment yielded results which implied that this finding was largely due to a confounding of race and seriousness of the crime.     

Neighborhood violent crime and adolescent relationship aggression

Research has shown that neighborhoods play a role in the etiology of violence. However, few adolescent relationship aggression (ARA) studies have objective measures of violent neighborhoods. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of youth, this study examines the association between ARA and local levels of violent crime (measured using geocoded Uniform Crime Report data from each of the youths’ residential neighborhoods). Study analyses are based on survey data from 723 youth (ages 10–18) in current or recent dating relationships (351 males and 372 females) in the Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV), a national representative household panel survey exploring interpersonal violence and related aggression among adolescents. About 19% of the sample reported ARA victimization in their most recent dating relationship (ARA perpetration was 17%). Neighborhood violent crime in the study (males living in 86.9 and females 99.8) was slightly lower than the national average of 100. With a broad national sample, 40% non-Whites, hypotheses guided by theories of neighborhood influence were tested. The study did not find an association between neighborhood violent crime and ARA victimization and perpetration, controlling for key demographic factors. The results, for a broad range of high- and low-crime neighborhoods, suggest that neighborhood violence does not seem to affect individual rates of ARA. The results suggest the ARA victimization and perpetration are perhaps ubiquitous and found both in low and high violent crime neighborhoods, suggesting that addressing local violent crime rates alone does not seem to be a path to also reducing ARA.