John Braithwaite's Theory Of Crime Causation

In 1989 John Braithwaite proposed a theory of crime causation. Braithwaite’s primary proposal was that a society’s structure and culture can influence individual deviant acts by the process of disintegrated shaming. Most punishments may consist of some type of shaming either from friends, family, and the community or law enforcement. Braithwaite argues that the result of guilt serves both as the social process which builds our consciences as well as a form of informal social control when wrongdoing occurs. People often become stabilized in criminal roles when they are labeled as a criminal and they also begin to develop criminal identities. Braithwaite (1989) distinguished between two types of shaming: stigmatization and reintegration.
Stigmatization occurs when the community attempts to socially separate the offender with punishments like incarceration. The recent attempts to increase the numbers of juveniles who are sent to criminal court could be considered an example of stigmatization. With these laws, society seeks to separate these juvenile offenders from the community. However, these punishments create the risk of

These groups tend to represent a source of social support and protection from those around them who react negatively towards their new deviant status. Bernberg et al also claim that non-labeled youth often feel uncomfortable and tend to exclude labeled youth. Social exclusion from conventional groups leads to even more participation in gangs, and further deviant behavior. Another reason for being involved in gangs can be for companionship with those sharing a similar self-perception. Formal adjudication for an offense may create a reputation of a juvenile as a criminal in his or her community, but most notably among their peers in the school and among other parents in the