Introduction
Violent delinquency has been widespread in the United States, resulting in many juvenile arrests. Shame is an attributional factor of abusive parenting that leads to violent behavior as a reaction to trauma (Gold et al., 2011, p. 459). When maltreatment causes pity, the justice system must consider the link between shame and juvenile offenders. However, the system should not use this to justify the offender’s brutal actions. I believe that child abuse causes embarrassment, influencing adolescents to become involved in crime. Shame can be converted (low shame, high blame for others) or expressed (high shame, little guilt for others) (Gold et al., 2011, p. 463). Child abuse is associated with a higher risk of violent behavior, which increases the likelihood of the child becoming involved in the justice system. The amount of shame depends on the length of time the child was abused, which determines the level of delinquency.
Procedure
Master’s level clinicians conducted interviews for Mental Health Evaluations at a detention center where adolescents imprisoned were awaiting criminal charges. The participants varied in age from 12 to 19 years old, with 90 males and 22 females taking part. The team gathered information such as the adolescent’s criminal behavior, community and educational histories, and peer relationships. Additionally, they conducted initiatives on violent delinquency, parental disciplinary practices, and the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-2 (TOSCA-2). The group used the TOSCA-2 scale to assess both expressed and converted shame.
Results
According to the study, adolescents subjected to abusive parents engaged in more improper conduct, converted, and expressed less guilt. There is no link between non-abusive parenting and violent delinquency, nor is any shame conveyed or transformed (Gold et al., 2011, p. 463). Child abuse influences violent behavior through the transformation of shame. When someone cannot bear the guilt, they channel it into other forms. The change of confusion into blaming others is a mechanism for developing and maintaining violent delinquency (Gold et al., 2011, p. 464). Participants who had experienced childhood maltreatment were more likely to engage in delinquent behavior due to trauma-related shame.
Discussion
Dennis was an adolescent in our neighborhood and hardly ever played with the rest of us. When he did, he was prone to violent behavior, such as fighting and using abusive language. From this scenario, I can say that traumatic shame impairs a child’s ability to integrate socially. On one occasion, the police arrested Dennis after he beat up another boy, only to discover later that a relative was mistreating him. When we visited him in juvenile detention, he told us about the abuse he had suffered. This scenario relates to a study in which subjects who converted their shame into blaming others had significantly more exposure to abusive parenting. Consequently, they displayed exceptionally more violent delinquent behavior than those who expressed remorse (Gold et al., 2011, p. 464). Dennis refused to change because he felt ashamed and blamed others for his misfortunes.
Conclusion
Converting shame enables the disgraced person to divert their attention and actions away from themselves, demeaning them with their profoundly negative feelings. Accepting responsibility for one’s behavior is critical to the process of change. On the other hand, those who avoid self-blame and criticize others for the conflict have little motivation to change their violent behavior, partly because blaming others safeguards them from feeling remorseful. Exposure to abusive parents influences whether a child expresses remorse or converts it into condemning others. As a result, we can conclude that shame conversion causes more violent delinquency than expressed shame. My closure is formed on the basis that as a result of embarrassment caused by maltreatment, individuals commit violent acts as legitimate types of conduct.
Reference
Gold, J., Sullivan, M. W., & Lewis, M. (2011). The relation between abuse and violent delinquency: The conversion of shame to blame in juvenile offenders. Child Abuse & Neglect, 35(7), 459-467.