Self-Esteem Task Force on Delinquents

As the Task Force on Self-Esteem’s consultant on crime and violence, I wish to comment on your story about the final report (“Courts, Parents Called Too Soft on Delinquents,” Part A, Dec. 1). I hope that the actual report does not place so much emphasis on such an old chestnut. Human beings and societies are complex creatures, hardly captured by simple platitudes.

Juveniles, courts, parents and many more elements all contribute to the crime problem, because they are together caught in an intricate social system, the status quo. First of all, it is unfair to single out courts and parents for blame, with no mention of other elements equally involved, such as the economic opportunity structure, the school system, police and corrections.

Second, the ideologies that the courts and parents are too soft or that they are too hard are much too abstract to be solutions. Both ideologies tie the hands of responsible persons trying to deal with each case as it comes along. Better to say that each of the participating groups, struggling to deal with particular juveniles, is sometimes too soft, sometimes too hard, but that at times the right mixture of softness and hardness is managed.

The idea of the right mixture of softness and hardness has been brilliantly captured in a book by criminologist John Braithwaite, “Crime, Shame and Reintegration” (1989). Using worldwide data, he shows that families and societies that use a combination of strong conscience-building shaming and strong acceptance of lawbreakers have low rates of crime (Japan and many nations in Europe). He also shows that families and societies (like the U.S.) which use too little highly visible shaming and too little acceptance, and too much stigmatizing (imprisonment and other “get tough” punishments) have high rates.

Braithwaite’s study is packed with new ideas about reform that point to hopeful new directions. For example, he suggests that our system of education, especially at the high school level, is deeply implicated in the problem of delinquency. At present, most schools stigmatize the students who do not shine in one narrow area, academic test-taking, unnecessarily driving down their self-esteem, tempting them to join crime-oriented groups. Braithwaite suggests that the development of educational tasks in addition to test-taking would help these students keep their self-respect, which would encourage them to remain in the law-abiding school community.

Crime and violence is just one of a host of problems besetting our civilization. To survive, we need to try out new ideas rather than repeating those that have been tried and found wanting.

PROF. THOMAS J. SCHEFF

UC Santa Barbara