Crime, shame, and recidivism: The Case of Iceland

In Crime, Shame, and Reintegration, John Braithwaite argues that communitarian societies are better able than others to reintegrate lawbreakers by shaming the offence without permanently stigmatizing the offender. Although Braithwaite focuses on crime rates, a logical corollary of his argument is that such societies should also exhibit markedly low rates of offender recidivism. In this paper, we examine offender recidivism in Iceland, a country that exhibits many of the social organizational hallmarks of communitarianism and relies heavily on shaming as a method of social control. Following Braithwaite then, Iceland should have a lower rate of recidivism than less socially integrated societies. Contrary to this expectation, results indicate that Icelandic recidivism rates closely approximate those of other nations, many of which are far less communitarian. We conclude by considering the role of recidivism in promoting social cohesion.