Moral emotions and offending: Do feelings of anticipated shame and guilt mediate the effect of socialization on offending?

Abstract

In this study we examine whether feelings of anticipated shame and anticipated guilt when being caught for an offence mediate the relationship between parental monitoring, bonds with parents and school, deviant peers, moral values and offending. We use data from the SPAN project, a study that collected detailed information about offending, moral emotions and socialization among 843 adolescents in The Hague, the Netherlands. The results show that moral emotions of both anticipated shame and guilt have a strong direct effect on offending. The results also show that the relationship between parental monitoring, deviant peers, moral values and offending is substantially mediated by anticipated shame and guilt. This study clearly suggests that both shame and guilt need to be included in the explanation of offending.

Diversity in Unity: Perspectives from Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

“…The positive correlation of shame and moral identity observed in the study supports findings of Svensson et al (2013) and Rahel (2014) who state that shame is associated with the reduction of morally inappropriate behaviours. It is because individuals possessing a high tendency to experience shame also believe that morals and behaving accordingly is important for oneself, thus making individuals consistently produce moral behaviours.…”

“…Based on the definition, shame is considered to be strongly related to the presence of others when an individual performs a particular behaviour. Svensson et al (2013) state that shame is associated with reduced rule-violating behaviours. Rahel (2014) also found that shame is negatively related to misconduct behaviours among adolescents.…”

Schools and Child Antisocial Behavior

“…Although attitudes that are supportive of lawbreaking are stable covariates of offending that mediate the relationship between social bonds and offending (Svensson et al, 2013), less is known empirically from criminological inquiries about the mediating role of moral feelings.…”

Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap

“…Eleven types of traditional offending were included: tax fraud, stealing, threats, violence, buying or selling stolen goods, carrying a weapon, vandalism, selling drugs, insurance fraud, burglary, and using a weapon. These items were based on the self-report measure of Svensson et al (2013) and Dutch criminal law.…”