ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that that aversion to imprisonment would of its own force drive progressive supporters of alternative sanctions to embrace shame as a lesser evil. It offers an independent policy defense of shaming punishments. The chapter suggests that restorative justice has the potential to do better precisely because of its expressive ambiguity. Policy deliberations are often distorted by a fallacious form or reasoning that social psychologists refer to as “status quo bias” refers to a fallacious form of reasoning policy deliberations. It occurs when persons insist that society forgo a policy reform unless that innovation can be implemented without risk of undesirable consequences. The sociological source is Joseph Gusfield’s work on symbolic politics. A Gusfield-Wildavsky theory helps to make sense of who believes what about various policies that appears to have an undeniably large impact on our material welfare.
