ABSTRACT
The best place to see reintegrative shaming at work is in loving families. J. Griffiths has described a ‘family model’ of the criminal process as one in which, instead of punishment being administered within the traditional framework of disharmony and fundamentally irreconcilable interests, it is imposed within a framework of reconcilable, even mutually supportive interests: Offenses, in a family, are normal, expected ocurrences. Family life teaches that shaming and punishment are possible while maintaining bonds of respect. Developmental psychologists sometimes like to make distinctions between soclization by shaming and by guilt-induction. Western theorizing on deterrence often refers to the greater importance of the shame associated with punishment than of the punishment itself. When an individual is shamed in Japan, the shame is often born by the collectivity to which the individual belongs as well — the family, the company, the school – particularly by the titular head of the collectivity.
