Page 192 - Essencials of Sociology

the symbolic Interactionist Perspective 165

Down-to-Earth Sociology

Shaming: Making a Comeback?

haming can be effective, especially when members of as a group member. In some courts martial, officers who
a primary group use it. In some communities, where are found guilty stand at attention before their peers while
S the individual’s reputation was at stake, shaming was others rip the insignia of rank from their uniforms. This pro-
the centerpiece of the enforcement of norms. Violators were cedure screams that the individual is no longer a member
marked as deviant and held up for all the world to see. In of the group. Although Hester Prynne was not banished
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, town officials forced from the group physically, she was banished morally; her
Hester Prynne to wear a scarlet “A” sewn on her dress. The degradation ceremony proclaimed her a moral outcast from
“A” stood for Adulteress. Wherever she went, Prynne had to the community. The scarlet “A” marked her as not “one of
wear this badge of shame—every day for the rest of her life. them.”
As our society grew large and urban, the sense of commu- Although we don’t use scarlet “A”’s today, informal degra-
nity diminished, and shaming lost its effectiveness. Shaming is dation ceremonies still occur. Consider what happened to this
now starting to make a comeback. New York City police officer (Chivers 2001):

• In Houston, Texas, a couple stole $265,000 from the Joseph Gray had been a police officer in New York City
crime victims’ fund. The couple was sentenced for fifteen years. As with some of his
to stand in front of a local mall for fellow officers, alcohol and sex
ve hours every weekend for helped relieve the pressures
six years with a sign reading, of police work. After spend-
“I am a thief.” They also ing one afternoon drinking
had to post a sign outside in a topless bar, bleary-
their house stating they eyed, Gray plowed his car
were convicted thieves into a vehicle carrying a
(“Woman Ordered pregnant woman, her son,
to . . . ” 2012). and her sister. All three
• In Cleveland, Ohio, a died. Gray was accused of
judge ordered a woman manslaughter and drunk
who drove on a sidewalk driving.
in order to pass a school The New York Times and
bus to hold a sign at the New York television stations
intersection reading, “Only kept hammering this story to
an idiot would drive on the the public. Three weeks later,
sidewalk to avoid a school bus” as Gray left police headquar-
(“Woman Ordered to . . . ” This 19-year-old in Wisconsin was given a reduced jail sentence ters after resigning, an angry
2012). for holding this sign in front of his former place of work. crowd surrounded him. Gray
• In Arizona, one sheriff makes the men in his jail wear hung his head in public disgrace as Victor Manuel Herrera,
pink underwear. The men also wear pink striped prison whose wife and son were killed in the crash, followed him,
uniforms while they work in chain gangs. Women prison- shouting, “You’re a murderer!” (Gray was later convicted of
ers are paraded in chain gangs in public, where they are drunk driving and manslaughter.)
forced to pick up street trash (Billeaud 2008).
• Online shaming sites have also appeared. Captured on
cell phone cameras are bad drivers, older men who leer
at teenaged girls, and people who don’t pick up their For Your Consideration
dog’s poop (Saranow 2007). ↑ How do you think law enforcement officials might use
• In Spain, where one’s reputation with neighbors still mat- shaming to reduce law breaking?
ters, debt collectors, dressed in tuxedos and top hats, ↑ How do you think school officials could use shaming?
walk slowly to the front door. The sight shames debtors
into paying (Catan 2008). ↑ Suppose that you were caught shoplifting at a store near
where you live. Would you rather spend a week in jail with no
Sociologist Harold Garfinkel (1956) gave the name one but your family knowing it or a week walking in front of
degradation ceremony to an extreme form of shaming. The the store you stole from wearing a placard that proclaims in
individual is called to account before the group, witnesses bold red capital letters: “I AM A THIEF!” and in smaller letters:
denounce him or her, the offender is pronounced guilty, and “I am sorry for stealing from this store and making you pay
steps are taken to strip the individual of his or her identity higher prices”? Why?