Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.
J Interpers Violence. 2021 Sep;36(17-18):8715-8740. doi: 10.1177/0886260519852634. Epub 2019 Jun 3.
The roles of shame and guilt, and their relationships to empathy, have not been modeled adequately as key factors in moral decision-making in the study of violence. The role of moral emotion has been neglected in existing criminological research and this study seeks to develop current explanations of the comprehensive myriad of factors that play a role in moral crime decision-making. This research will test the different roles of empathy, shame, and guilt in violence decision-making using a situational action theory (SAT) perspective. Data taken from the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a longitudinal study with a large representative sample, provide quantitative questionnaire indices to enable comparison of a persistent and frequent violent offender subsample ( = 48) with the remaining PADS+ study sample ( = 607). A striking majority of violent offenders report that they do not think it is wrong to commit violence, and do not care about it, that is, they lack shame and guilt, and report that violence comes as a morally acceptable and natural action alternative. Furthermore, violent offenders do not register the predicament of their victims; there is a distinct lack of empathy. This article demonstrates a key finding which has rarely been explored to date; regression analyses reveal an interaction effect whereby individuals with weak shame and guilt, combined specifically with weak moral rules, are more likely to commit acts of violence. The study findings provide strong support for the SAT of the role of weak morality in violence decision-making. To reduce the possibility of crime being seen as an action alternative, moral development programs should be developed and administered in childhood.
羞耻感和内疚感的作用，以及它们与同理心的关系，在暴力行为研究中，尚未被充分建模为道德决策的关键因素。道德情感在现有的犯罪学研究中被忽视了，本研究旨在发展当前对在道德犯罪决策中起作用的众多因素的解释。本研究将使用情境行动理论 (SAT) 视角来测试同理心、羞耻感和内疚感在暴力决策中的不同作用。数据来自彼得伯勒青少年和成年发展研究 (PADS+)，这是一项具有代表性大样本的纵向研究，提供了定量问卷指标，以便比较持续和频繁的暴力犯罪者亚组（=48）与剩余的 PADS+研究样本（=607）。绝大多数暴力犯罪者报告说，他们认为实施暴力行为没有错，也不在乎，也就是说，他们缺乏羞耻感和内疚感，并表示暴力行为是一种道德上可接受且自然的行为选择。此外，暴力犯罪者不会感受到受害者的困境；同理心明显缺失。本文展示了一个迄今为止很少被探索的关键发现；回归分析显示出一种交互效应，即羞耻感和内疚感较弱的个体，特别是与较弱的道德规则相结合，更有可能实施暴力行为。研究结果为 SAT 在暴力决策中道德较弱的作用提供了强有力的支持。为了降低犯罪被视为行为选择的可能性，应在儿童时期制定和实施道德发展计划。
