CRIME, SHAME , AND COMMUNITY:
MEDIATION AGAINST VIOLENCEWELLNESS FOUNDATION
DISTINGUISHED LECTUREThomas J. Scheff
Professor Emeritus of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara.Part 3: MATERIAL AND SYMBOLIC PROCESSES IN CRIME CONTROL
WELLNESS LECTURE SERIES VOLUME VI
October 1996.
MATERIAL AND SYMBOLIC PROCESSES IN CRIME CONTROL
Material reparation. Material and symbolic reparation occur side by side in community conferences. Material reparation leads to the actual settlement: the undertakings agreed upon by the participants to compensate the victim and society for the offender’s crimes. These reparations almost always consist of restitution or compensation for damage done, as well as some form of community service. The process of arriving at a settlement is verbal, highly visible, and largely unambiguous; it provides the ostensible purpose for the meeting.
Underlying the process of reaching a settlement, however, is the much less visible and more ambiguous process of symbolic reparation. This process involves social rituals of respect, courtesy, apology, and forgiveness, which seem to operate somewhat independently of the verbal agreements that are reached. Symbolic reparation depends on the emotional dynamics of the meeting and on the state of the bonds between the participants. The emotion of shame and the negotiation of shame dynamics, in
particular, are of critical importance to this process. The core sequence.
For symbolic reparation to occur,two steps seem to be necessary. The offender first must clearly express genuine shame and remorse over her actions. In response, the victim can then take a first step toward forgiving the offender. I call these two steps the core sequence. It is the core sequence that generates repair and restoration of the bond that was severed by the offender’s crime. The repair of this bond symbolizes a more extensive restoration that is to take place between the offender and the other participants, the police, and the community. When the offender accepts responsibility for his actions, then the stage is set for his reacceptance into the community: he need not become a habitual offender. Even though the emotional exchange that constitutes the core sequence may be brief,even a few seconds,it is the key to reconciliation, victim satisfaction, and decreasing recidivism.
The core sequence, as crucial as it is in itself, also affects the material settlement. Emotional conciliation typically leads directly to a settlement that satisfies the participants, one that is neither too punitive nor too lenient but seems more or less inevitable. Such a settlement is a creative response to the situation, and develops naturally out of it. Without the core sequence, the path toward settlement is impeded; whatever settlement is reached does not decrease the tension level in the room but instead leaves the participants with a feeling of arbitrariness and dissatisfaction.
Thus, it is crucially important to give symbolic reparation as much importance as the material settlement. Unless this is done, conferences may turn out, in the long run, to be only marginally better than traditional court practices. Symbolic reparation is the vital element that differentiates conferences from all other forms of crime control.
Community conferences observed.
In our study ofcrime control, my co-investigator and I were impressed by the power of the conference format. We consider it to be a justice machine, as contrasted with the court, which is a fact-finding and punishing machine. In a conference,independent of the development of a material settlement,the movement seems to be toward justice and reconciliation. Nevertheless, in eight of the nine cases we observed, we had the feeling of difficulty, tension, and arbitrariness in reaching an agreement. The vital component of symbolic reparation, the core sequence, occurred only once during the formal part of the nine conferences we observed. But in three cases, the core sequence seemed to occur immediately after the formal meeting was over.
The exception in which the core sequence occurred during the formal meeting was a case in Adelaide. It involved a large and powerful juvenile who had stolen from one of his fellow residents in a halfway house. This offender stonewalled through most of the formal proceedings, giving minimal responses and showing the other participants the top of his head (his chin resting on his chest) and the soles of his shoes. But when it came time for his apology, he surprised everyone present by looking directly at the victim and making a heartfelt statement that went far beyond the formal requirements. His action drained away the tension in the room, so that the settlement that was reached seemed satisfying and inevitable.
In three of the cases, the vital movement from shame and remorse to forgiveness may have occurred immediately after the formal end of the conference. In two of these cases, we observed the victims in what appeared to be normal conversation with the offenders while they waited to sign forms. In the third case, the facilitator, who escorted the participants out of the building, reported that the victim had patted one of the offenders on the shoulder after he had made a tearful apology to her. These three instances suggest that it might be advantageous to build in a delay after the formal end of the conference, such as the signing of a written agreement, which would allow the participants to complete their unfinished business of symbolic reparation.
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