DELINQUENCY AND SHAME: Data from Hong Kong

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Abstract
Braithwaite's concept of ‘reintegrative shaming’ has become widely accepted within criminology, though there exist few clear views of how it can be accomplished in practice. Braithwaite's primary example of a culture in which reintegrative shaming takes place is Japan. This study uses data from several sources relating to Hong Kong, which parallels Japan in that attitudes and beliefs that may promote reintegrative shaming are widespread. It argues that in Hong Kong, shaming is nonetheless not regarded as privileged over the assertion or acceptance of guilt, and that methods of ‘disintegrative shaming’ are in fact common. This opens the way for a broader discussion of the conditions under which shame induction and guilt induction processes are likely to produce lower crime rates in the way that Braithwaite has proposed.

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