FOOTNOTES:
n3 Shame, guilt and embarrassment have been categorized as the "self-conscious emotions." Tangney, et al., Shame -
proneness, Guilt-proneness, and Psychological Symptoms, in SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
SHAME, GUILT, EMBARRASSMENT, AND PRIDE 349 n.1 (J. P. Tangney & K.W. Fischer eds., 1995) [hereinafter
Tangney]. Embarrassment is a "shame-linked" emotion experienced without the disruption of thought or the emotional
intensity of the more virulently felt constellation of emotions known as "shame." MICHAEL LEWIS, SHAME, THE
EXPOSED SELF 81 (1992); see also Christian Heath, Embarrassment and Interactional Organization, in ERVING
GOFFMAN: EXPLORING THE INTERACTION ORDER 137 (Paul Drew & Anthony Wooton eds., 1988) (Embarrassment
is at the heart of day-to-day social conduct, constraining the behavior of individuals by way of public responses to
actions and activities considered problematic or untoward. Embarrassment thereby plays a critical role in "sustaining
the individual's commitment to social organization, values and convention," permeating all of our dealings with others
and informing the boundaries of individual behavior that formal and institutionalized constraints do not reach.).
n4 John Braithwaite, Reintegrative Shaming, Republicanism and Policy, in CRIME AND PUBLIC POLICY: PUTTING
THEORY TO WORK 191, 193 (Hugh P. Barlow ed., 1995) [hereinafter Braithwaite, Shaming].
n5 John Braithwaite, Shame and Criminal Justice, 42 CANADIAN J. CRIMINOLOGY & CRIM. JUST. 281, 281-82 (2000)
[hereinafter Braithwaite 2000].
n6 Braithwaite, Shaming, supra note 4, at 194.
n7 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 293.
n8 Id.
n9 LAWRENCE W. SHERMAN & HEATHER STRANG, THE RIGHT KIND OF SHAME FOR CRIME PREVENTION,
REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING EXPERIMENTS (RISE) 1 (Canberra: Australian Nat'l Univ., Working Paper, 1997),
available at http://www.aic.giv.au/rjustice/rise/working/risepap1.html.
n10 See section II, infra.
n11 ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY (Douglas Harper, ed., 2001), at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?
l=s&p=16.
n12 Unacknowledged shame perpetuates "entrapment in one's own isolation," creating further shame and increased
isolation. ALLAN N. SCHORE, AFFECT REGULATION AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SELF: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 248 (1994). See also, Simone Fullager, Wasted Lives: The Social Dynamics of Shame
and Youth Suicide, 39 J. SOC. 291, 297 (2002) (Unrecognized shame generates an "unending spiral" of painful
feelings of self-loathing).
n13 Nancy Eisenberg, Emotion, Regulation and Moral Development, 51 ANN. REV. PSYCHOL. 665, 667 (2000)
(quoting T.J. Ferguson & H. Stegge, Measuring Guilt in Children: A Rose by Any Other Name Still Has Thorns, in
GUILT AND CHILDREN 20 (Jane Bybee ed., 1998)).
n14 Id.; see also MARIO JACOBY, SHAME AND THE ORIGINS OF SELF-ESTEEM: A JUNGIAN APPROACH 95 (1996)
(Shame "sends us into isolation or retreat.").
n15 Eisenberg, supra note 13, at 668.
n16 Id.; see also Miriam Chernoff, et al., Toward Forgiveness: The Role of Shame, Guilt, Anger and Empathy, 46
COUNSELING AND VALUES 26, 33 (2001) ("Guilt, in contrast to shame, serves to engage individuals in a process
supportive of resolution of conflict and forgiveness.").
n17 SCHORE, supra note 12, at 204.
n18 See D.L. NATHANSON, SHAME AND PRIDE: AFFECT, SEX AND THE BIRTH OF THE SELF 209 (1992).
n19 Id. at 316-17.
n20 These "life scripts" are sets of "layered associations" concerning our personal size, strength, ability, skill ("I am
weak, incompetent, stupid"); dependence and independence ("I am helpless"); ability to compete ("I am a loser");
sense of self ("I am unique only to the extent that I am defective"); personal attractiveness ("I am ugly or deformed");
sexuality ("There is something wrong with me sexually"); public presence ("I wish a hole would open up in the ground
and swallow me"); and, wishes or fears about closeness ("I am not fit for human company; I am unloved and will be
alone forever."). Id.
n21 Id. at 365.
n22 Id.
n23 Id. at 66.
n24 Tangney, supra note 3, at 343-44 ("The distinction between shame and guilt . . . is an important one. Numerous
empirical studies [citations omitted] underscore that shame and guilt differ importantly along affective, cognitive and
motivational dimensions.").
n25 Eisenberg, supra note 13, at 665; see also Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 ("With [guilt's] focus on a behavior
(rather than the self) comes a sense of tension, remorse, and regret. The person in the midst of a guilt experience
often feels a press to confess, apologize, or make amends for the bad deed that was done . . . Because a behavior -
not the self - is the object of approbation, the self remains mobilized and ready to take reparative action to the extent
that circumstances allow.").
n26 Eisenberg, supra note13, at 679.
n27 Id. at 679-80.
n28 Id. at 680 (Research has repeatedly shown that children who experience guilt offend less often than those who do
not.); see also Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 (Guilt is adaptive, serving to "protect the self from unwarranted global
devaluation, while at the same time keeping the door open for remedying the guilt-inducing behavior and/or making
amends for its consequences. In a very real sense, then, guilt is a hopeful, future-oriented moral affective
experience.").
n29 HELEN B. LEWIS, SHAME AND GUILT IN NEUROSIS 88, 90-91, 251-252 (1971).
n30 SCHORE, supra note 12, at 242.
n31 Id. at 242-43.
n32 Id. at 242.
n33 Id.
n34 Id.
n35 Id.
n36 Id.
n37 Id. at 242-43.
n38 Id. at 243.
n39 Id. at 246.
n40 Id.
n41 Id. at 247.
n42 Id. at 247-48.
n43 Id.
n44 Id.
n45 Id.
n46 Id. at 248.
n47 Id.
n48 Research in child development shows that "securely attached" toddlers readily separate from their primary care-
taker to check out novel environments, freely and easily share with their parental figure on an emotional level and are
readily comforted when distressed, returning easily to play. NATHANSON, supra note 18, at 232-33. This early "secure
attachment" forms the necessary basis for healthy, stable and satisfying personal relationships in adulthood. JOHN H.
KENNELL, BONDING: BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF SECURE ATTACHMENT AND INDEPENDENCE 192 (1995)
("Without a secure base established in infancy, humans from childhood throughout adult life may develop and cling to
the belief that the world is unstable, and that they cannot safely trust others.").
n49 Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 ("Research . . . indicates that shame can engender a hostile, defensive type of
anger [citations omitted] presumably aimed at a real or imagined disapproving other.").
n50 Id. ("The person in the midst of a guilt experience often feels a press to confess, apologize or make amends for
the bad deed done.").
n51 Id. at 344-45 ("Guilt fosters an adaptive, constructive orientation toward others, whereas shame invokes a number
of processes that are likely to be detrimental to interpersonal relationships" such as shame's tendency to "interfere
with other-oriented empathic concern." Guilt, on the other hand, "appears to enhance other-oriented empathy.").
n52 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285 (Families that fail to discipline misbehavior, as well as those that reject the
misbehaving child and impose "harsh, unreasoning and punitive" sanctions are more likely to raise children who
engage in criminal behavior than those that condemn wrong-doing but respect the wrong-doer.).
n53 Id. at 294.
n54 Toni Massaro, Shame, Culture and American Criminal Law, 89 MICH. L. REV. 1880, 1936-37 (1991) [hereinafter
"Massaro"].
n55 Richard Delgado, Goodbye to Hammurabi: Analyzing the Atavistic Appeal of Restorative Justice, 52 STAN. L. REV.
751, 765 (2000) [hereinafter "Delgado"].
n56 DANIEL VAN NESS & KAREN H. STRONG, RESTORING JUSTICE 10 (1997).
n57 Delgado, supra note 55, at 761.
n58 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 291 ("Reintegrative shaming, according to the theory, will be more widespread
in societies where communities are strong, where citizens are densely enmeshed in loving, trust and respectful
relationships with others."); Massaro, supra note 54, at 1922-23.
n59 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1922-23.
n60 Id.
n61 Id.
n62 Id.
n63 Id.
n64 These qualities are known as ubuntu in Africa. DESMOND TUTU, NO FUTURE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS 31-32
(1999). A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others
are able or good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a
greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or
treated as if they were less than who they are. Id.
n65 JOHN OWEN HALEY, AUTHORITY WITHOUT POWER: LAW AND THE JAPANESE PARADOX 136 (1991) (studies
have found that offenders "relieve distress experienced after committing a crime harmful to others by justification,
derogating the victim and denying responsibility or restitution."); see also Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285
("Harsh, unreasoning and punitive discipline combined with rejection of the child" is "particularly criminogenic." (quoting
ROBERT SAMPSON & JOHN LAUB, CRIME IN THE MAKING AND TURNING POINTS THROUGH LIFE 122 (1995))).
n66 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 288.
n67 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1919 ("Labeling theorists believe that the[] negative consequences of stigmatizing
offenders outweigh any benefits." "Specifically, they argue that by labeling an offender 'deviant' -- which shaming
sanctions clearly try to do -- the state may produce 'secondary deviance,' or criminal acts that are a result of the
labeling.").
n68 Davis & Jansen, Making Meaning of Alcoholics Anonymous for Social Workers: Myths, Metaphors, and Realities,
43 SOC. WORK 169, 178-79 (1998) [hereinafter "Making Meaning"] (suggesting that there are many "extended"
meanings embedded in one's self-identification as an alcoholic, including the assertion that despite one's alcoholism,
the AA member is "sober today and participating in AA to help his mental, spiritual and physical recovery.").
n69 See generally KATHLEEN S. LOWNEY, BARING OUR SOULS: TV TALK SHOWS AND THE RELIGION OF
RECOVERY (1999) [hereinafter "BARING SOULS"].
n70 Davis & Jansen, Making Meaning of Alcoholics Anonymous for Social Workers: Myths, Metaphors, and Realities,
43 SOC. WORK 169, 170 (1998) [hereinafter "Making Meaning"] (These were the existing attitudes in 1935 when late-
stage alcoholics Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith joined together to created what is now known as Alcoholics
Anonymous.).
n71 Members of the public categorize offenders as people with anti-social temperaments and dispositions. JULIAN V.
ROBERTS & LORETTA J. STALANS, PUBLIC OPINION, CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE 31 (1997). The public
therefore appears to attribute crime not to external circumstances (such as provocation or loss of a job) but the
personality attributes of the offender. Id. This "once an offender, always an offender" view is likely to affect large
numbers of people, especially in the United States where state information systems carry criminal record information
on fifty million individuals. Id.
n72 GEORGE H. JENSEN, STORYTELLING IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 115 (2000)
[hereinafter "STORYTELLING"].
n73 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 175 (When people with similar problems join together for the purpose of
solving them, they feel empowered and able to control some aspect of their lives, particularly where the help is not
given to them from the outside.).
n74 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 178-79.
n75 STORYTELLING, supra note 72, at 115.
n76 Id.
n77 Some people, in a likely attempt to further reduce the shame of alcoholism, introduce themselves as "recovering
alcoholics" and some as "grateful recovering alcoholics." See e.g., Byron Roberts, Golden Age: AA Celebrates 60
Sober Years, INSIGHT ON THE NEWS, June 26, 1995, available at www.questia.com/PMqst?a=o&d=50000310303 ("At
meetings, speakers introduce themselves - 'My name is Sarah and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic'- and then they
launch into . . . stories that are often grim, but laced with irony and self-deprecating humor and laughs. . . . As one AA
member says, 'no matter how miserable and agonizing the stories are, they all have a happy ending because you're
hearing them at an AA meeting.'").
n78 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 178-79.
n79 Id.
n80 Concealing one's alcoholism, like hiding other stigmatic self-identifications such as homosexuality, has negative
consequences to one's physical health and social relationships.
n81 Annette R. Smith, The Social Construction of Group Dependency In Alcoholics Anonymous, 23 J. DRUG ISSUES
689, 698 (1993) ("The alcoholic must dismantle negative self-concepts . . . from the knowledge of harm his . . .
drinking has done to others and the negative labeling and control strategies imposed by society." Id. AA accomplishes
this goal by "encouraging full disclosure of his 'wrongs' in order to have them demystified, where they can then be
'righted' by 'making amends' and embarking on a more spiritual path which includes helping others."); see also Making
Meaning, supra note 70, at 179 (reinterpreting the alcoholic experience as spiritually bankrupt gives meaning to a
"past filled with degradation and chaos and creates hope for . . . a different future.").
n82 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LESBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL EXPERIENCES 272 (Garnets & Kimmell
eds., 2002).
n83 Id.
n84 Id.
n85 One is not, of course, an "offender" or an "ex-offender" but an individual who has been convicted of committing a
crime. Nevertheless, society stigmatizes such individuals as being ex-offenders, which often leads those individuals to
incorporate offending into their own self-conception. Bruce G. Link & Jo C. Phelan, Conceptualizing Stigma, 27 ANN.
REV. SOC. 363, 375 (2001), http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001041349 [hereinafter "Stigma"]. As some
commentators have suggested:
To the extent that stigmatized groups accept the dominant view of their lower status, they are less likely to challenge
structural forms of discrimination that block opportunities they desire. Further, direct discrimination reinforces the belief
among stigmatized groups that they will be treated in accordance with stereotypes and therefore reinforces processes
like those explicated in the context of modified labeling theory and the stereotype-threat concept.
Id.
n86 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 176; see also HIGH ANXIETIES: CULTURAL STUDIES IN ADDICTION 99 (Janet
Farrell Brodie & Marc Redfield eds., 2002) (Although AA uses a discourse of disease to account for alcoholism, the
program does not suggest any medical or therapeutic "cure" or "treatment" for the problem; it offers instead a "spiritual
solution." In this sense, AA's discourse does not treat alcoholism literally as a disease: disease functions in AA
discourse as a rhetorical trope, a metaphor for the alcoholic's condition).
n87 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 175; see also DAVID R. RUDY, BECOMING ALCOHOLIC: ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS AND THE REALITY OF ALCOHOLISM 135 (1986).
n88 Research on stigma has demonstrated that self-disclosure is an effective strategy for reducing the stress
associated with concealment and for enhancing one's self-esteem if done in an atmosphere of trust and
understanding. Stigma, supra note 85, at 380.
n89 Francis J. Schweigert, Moral Education in Victim Offender Conferencing, 18 CRIM. JUST. ETHICS 29, 36 (1999),
available at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mihb3009/is199906/ain7652405. The recognition of human fallibility
not only serves to reduce both self-loathing and grandiosity, but also reconnects recovering members to the human
community. Id. AA reminds its members that:
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to the ... principles [of the twelve steps].
We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are
guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, THE STORY OF HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF MEN AND WOMEN HAVE RECOVERED
FROM ALCOHOLISM 60 (4th ed. 2001) [hereinafter "BIG BOOK"].
n90 THOMAS J. SCHEFF, HONOR AND SHAME: LOCAL PEACE-MAKING THROUGH COMMUNITY CONFERENCES
(Conference Paper, 1997) published at www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/scheff6.html.
n91 Id. As one commentator has noted, because the "language of AA is the language of narrative and metaphor, it is
easily misunderstood outside the context of lived experience and of the meaning-making of the membership as a whole
...." Making Meaning, supra note 66, at 172.
n92 HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH VULNERABLE AND RESILIENT POPULATIONS 67 (Alex
Gitterman ed., 2001). The defining feature of alcoholism is the "loss of control" over drinking - meaning that alcoholics
cannot reliably predict when they will stop drinking once they start nor how much they will consume once them have
begun. Id. It is for this reason that alcoholics say "it is the first drink that gets you drunk." See, e.g., http://www.12steps.
org/12stephelp/shortreads/WISE.htm, one of the hundreds of web sites recounting AA folk sayings, aphorisms and
slogans.
n93 As reported by one hospital web site; late stage alcoholism includes an obsession with alcohol that excludes all
other concerns; often involves round-the-clock drinking despite an inability to keep down the first drinks in the
morning; causes the alcoholic to become phobic of crowds and public places and to be suffused with remorse and
guilt, which can only be alleviated by more drinking. See COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF P & S COMPLETE
HOME MEDICAL GUIDE, at http://www.diabetic-help.com/sxalcworksinbody.htm. Homelessness often ensues, as do
terminal medical conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver. Id. The late stage alcoholic begins to suffer from severe
withdrawal symptoms if alcohol is withheld, including the shakes, delirium tremens, and convulsions. Id. Without
hospitalization or residency in a therapeutic community, late-stage alcoholics usually succumb to insanity and death.
n94 Id.
n95 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 31.
n96 Id.
n97 BAUMAND & BURNES, A NATION IN DENIAL, THE TRUTH ABOUT HOMLESSNESS 17 (1993) ("Alcoholism
continues to be the most significant problem connected to modern homelessness." The "general consensus is that
approximately 40 percent of homeless adults have significant alcohol problems.").
n98 See generally, Randi Cartmill & Robert Parker, Alcohol and Homicide in the United States 1934-1995 - or One
Reason Why U.S. Rates of Violence May Be Going Down, 88 J. CRIM. LAW & CRIMINOLOGY 1369 (1998) (There is a
statistically significant correlation between alcohol consumption and homicide. Id. at 1375-76).
n99 MEN HEALING SHAME: AN ANTHOLOGY 6 (Robert Bly, ed., 1995) (suggesting that denial is a means of reducing
the shame of alcoholism).
n100 Id.
n101 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285, 287.
n102 Id.
n103 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 180.
n104 Id. (emphasis added).
n105 See, e.g. Smith, supra note 81, at 693 (Resocialization of the alcoholic requires the presence of "significant
others with whom he must establish strongly affective identification" leading to the formation of a partnership "in
significant conversation change.").
n106 Braithwaite, Shaming, supra note 4, at 69 (shaming is likely to be less effective if those shamed tend to be
different from those doing the shaming).
n107 VILLA V. BONDESON, ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT: INTENTIONS AND REALITY 236 (1994).
n108 Empathy has been variously defined. For our purposes it suffices to say that a person experiences and exhibits
empathy when she experiences and responds to distress in others by feeling distress herself and attempting to
diminish the pain felt by others. MARK H. DAVIS, EMPATHY: A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH 9 (1994) ("As
role-taking skills develop, this other-oriented distress increasingly becomes a form of true compassion for others."
Empathy fosters altruism and enhances social success.).
n109 DANNY M. WILCOX, ALCOHOLIC THINKING: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND BELIEF IN ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS 77 (1998). As anthropologist Wilcox explains,
Although each individual will have personalized variations, the general theme [of the AA recovery story] is one of losing
control, first over drinking, then over other aspects of everyday existence. This is followed by an awareness that a
problem exists, but a continuing denial that the problem is 'alcoholism.' Finally, the ego structure that displaces,
minimizes, and rationalizes the behavior collapses due to the massive accumulation of empirical evidence gathered
over an extended period of time by the individual (citation omitted). Once this collapse takes place and the individual
'hits bottom," the process of change has begun and it is possible to recover.'
Id.
n110 Id. at 120.
n111 Susan Stephenson, Narrative, Identity and Modernity, Discussion Paper for ECPR Workshop "The Political Uses
of Narrative" (March 29-31, 1999), at http://www.essex.ac.
uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/mannheim/w22/Stephenson.PDF#search='narrative,%20identity%20and%
20modernity%20and%20stephenson'.
n112 VAN NESS, supra note 56, at 69-70.
n113 Id.
n114 Id.
n115 Id.
n116 See Victor Witter Turner, Symbolic Studies, 4 ANN. REV. ANTHROPOLOGY, 145, 159 (1975), available at http:
//www.jstar.org. Though not magic, it is more like folk medicine than western "treatment." Id. "The healing rite in 'folk' or
'tribal' medicine is seen to be more than the typing and labeling of diseases and symptoms and the restoration of
health. It is rather the mobilization of efficacy through symbolic action for restoring internal integrity to the patient and
order to his community." Id.
n117 Author's Observation, Midtown Manhattan AA meeting, January 2004.
n118 MICHAEL TONRY, THE HANDBOOK OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 334 (2000) (including in VOMs "people who
enjoy maximum respect and trust on both the offender's and the victim's side, we maximize the changes that shame will
be dealt with in a reintegrative way.").
n119 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1936.
n120 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 291.
n121 Schweigert, supra note 89, at 37.
n122 Id.
n123 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 292 (quoting Sampson, Raudenbush & Earls, Neighborhoods and Violent
Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy, 277 SCIENCE 918 (1997)).
n124 Ethan G. Kallet, Twelve Steps, You're Out (Of Prison): An Evaluation of "Anonymous Progrmas" as Alternative
Sentences, 48 HASTINGS L.J. 129, 152 n.131 (1996); see also Lisa Loving, Treatment Program Helps Keep Convicts
From Returning to Jail: N.E. Portland Group Offers Counseling, Job Assistance to Ex-Cons, PORTLAND SKANNER,
Feb. 21, 2001, available at http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc3.asp?DOCID=1P1:
79639967&num=1&ctrlInfo=Round10%3AProd%3ASR%3AResult&ao=&FreePremium=BOTH.
n125 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 26, 29, 66.
n126 Id. at 21.
n127 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83 (promising "a new freedom and a new happiness" if the alcoholic is
"painstaking" about taking a thorough inventory of one's misdeeds and making amends for them all).
n128 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 59 ("The newcomer is immediately accepted and supported by the AA community
with very little reservation. . . They are encouraged to not drink, come to meetings, and read the Big Book. If they do
these things, they are optimistically reassured that "things will get better." . . . Newcomers are told that they must
accept their limitations as human beings and submit to a power greater than themselves. It is relatively easy to modify
one's behavior in relation to drinking and become more honest, sociable, competent, energetic, and optimistic as a
result of not being intoxicated and out of control.").
n129 Author's observation in Los Angeles and Sacramento Counties, California; London, England; New York City;
Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and, Toronto, Ontario AA meetings 1994 through 2005.
n130 Id.; see also Smith, supra note 81, at 702 (recommending temporary sponsorship for new AA members who are
not naturally "affiliative").
n131 Author's observation in Los Angeles and Sacramento Counties, California; London, England; New York City;
Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and, Toronto, Ontario AA meetings 1994 through 2005.
n132 Id.
n133 Smith, supra note 81, at 694-95.
n134 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 21-22.
n135 Wilcox describes the beneficial effect of AA "recovery stories" from his own personal experience as follows:
As I entered the meeting place, I observed the other people sitting around waiting for the meeting to begin. There were
only six to eight people in the room when I entered. At least half of them extended cordial greetings and two of them
introduced themselves. A strong feeling of guilt and embarrassment was present. . . When I walked through the door, I
had no intention of accepting "total abstinence" . . . After listening to the speaker for an hour that morning, I had heard
enough similarity between the story he told and my own experience to accept a desire chip, a small metal token
symbolizing the desire to quit drinking. Extremely inspired by the possibilities of abstinence, I was able to not take a
drink for about a week.
Id.; see also Smith, supra note 81, at 696 (stressing the importance to the process of group affiliation of hearing one's
own drinking story told by another).
n136 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 21-22.
n137 Those steps are: 1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become
unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision
to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made
direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to
take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs. BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 59-60.
n138 Id. at 63-70 (emphasis added). This is the work that is prerequisite to the "promises" quoted below. Id. at 83.
n139 Smith, supra note 81, at 698. As Smith notes:
The alcoholic must . . . dismantle negative self-concepts that he or she has adopted from the knowledge of harm his or
her drinking has done to others and the negative labeling and control strategies imposed by society. The basic AA
methodology for this is to encourage full disclosure of these "wrongs" in order to have them demystified, where they
can then be "righted" by "making amends" and embarking on a more spiritual path, which includes helping others. This
process is embodied in Steps 4 through 12."
Id.
n140 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83. This echoes reintegrative shaming's goal of focusing on the criminal act rather
than on the criminal offender. That we can take responsibility without shame is repeatedly emphasized in the Big Book.
This particular paragraph of the Big Book ends by advising that "as God's people we stand on our feet; we don't crawl
before anyone." Id.
n141 Id.
n142 Id. at 59.
n143 Id. at 62 (As a result of sharing our moral inventory with another, we "emerge from isolation through the open
and honest sharing of our terrible burden of guilt which brings us to a resting place where we may prepare ourselves
for the following Steps toward a full and meaningful recovery.").
n144 Smith, supra note 81, at 696 ("The development of a dyadic, significant-other relationship serves as an initial
impetus for beginning the process of integration" into the AA group.).
n145 "Often it was while working . . . Step Five with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to
forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-
round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we'd be
able to receive forgiveness and give it too." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, THE TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE
TRADITIONS 58 (1981) [hereinafter TWELVE AND TWELVE].
n146 Id.
n147 Id. at 72; see also Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 282.
n148 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 59.
n149 Step Eight requires the alcoholic to make a list of "all persons he had harmed and became willing to make
amends to them all" and Step Nine to "make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others." Id. at 59.
n150 Joan Ellen Zweben, The Therapist's Role in Early and Ongoing Recovery, in TREATING ALCOHOLISM 221
(Stephanie Brown ed., 1995).
n151 GUEST & PARKER, THE CLINICIANS' GUIDE TO 12-STEP PROGRAMS: HOW, WHEN AND WHY TO REFER A
CLIENT 5 (1999).
n152 As the "Big Book" says,
There may be some wrongs we can never fully right. We don't worry about them if we can honestly say to ourselves
that we would right them if we could. Some people cannot be seen -- we send them an honest letter. And there may be
a valid reason for postponement in some cases. But we don't delay if it can be avoided. We should be sensible, tactful,
considerate and humble without being servile or scraping."
BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83.
n153 Id.
n154 Id.
n155 TWELVE AND TWELVE, supra note 145, at 93.
n156 Id. at 91 ("Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen. We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious,
power driven argument.").
n157 Id. at 84.
n158 Id. at 79-80.
n159 Id. at 84.
n160 Id. at 77-78.
n161 Id.
n162 Studies have shown that being a "twelve-step" sponsor increases the chances that a substance abuser will still
be abstinent a year after discontinuing drug use. Friend, et al., Helping Other Alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous and
Drinking Outcomes: Findings from Project MATCH, 65 J. STUD. ON ALCOHOL 766, 770 (2004). Some have suggested
that the correlation between sponsorship and an increased likelihood of abstinence arises from greater treatment
involvement and motivation for lifestyle change. Id. Another study found that the total amount of time spent in
community-related helping was significantly related to length of sobriety. Id.
n163 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83.
n164 Id. at 84
n3 Shame, guilt and embarrassment have been categorized as the "self-conscious emotions." Tangney, et al., Shame -
proneness, Guilt-proneness, and Psychological Symptoms, in SELF-CONSCIOUS EMOTIONS: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
SHAME, GUILT, EMBARRASSMENT, AND PRIDE 349 n.1 (J. P. Tangney & K.W. Fischer eds., 1995) [hereinafter
Tangney]. Embarrassment is a "shame-linked" emotion experienced without the disruption of thought or the emotional
intensity of the more virulently felt constellation of emotions known as "shame." MICHAEL LEWIS, SHAME, THE
EXPOSED SELF 81 (1992); see also Christian Heath, Embarrassment and Interactional Organization, in ERVING
GOFFMAN: EXPLORING THE INTERACTION ORDER 137 (Paul Drew & Anthony Wooton eds., 1988) (Embarrassment
is at the heart of day-to-day social conduct, constraining the behavior of individuals by way of public responses to
actions and activities considered problematic or untoward. Embarrassment thereby plays a critical role in "sustaining
the individual's commitment to social organization, values and convention," permeating all of our dealings with others
and informing the boundaries of individual behavior that formal and institutionalized constraints do not reach.).
n4 John Braithwaite, Reintegrative Shaming, Republicanism and Policy, in CRIME AND PUBLIC POLICY: PUTTING
THEORY TO WORK 191, 193 (Hugh P. Barlow ed., 1995) [hereinafter Braithwaite, Shaming].
n5 John Braithwaite, Shame and Criminal Justice, 42 CANADIAN J. CRIMINOLOGY & CRIM. JUST. 281, 281-82 (2000)
[hereinafter Braithwaite 2000].
n6 Braithwaite, Shaming, supra note 4, at 194.
n7 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 293.
n8 Id.
n9 LAWRENCE W. SHERMAN & HEATHER STRANG, THE RIGHT KIND OF SHAME FOR CRIME PREVENTION,
REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING EXPERIMENTS (RISE) 1 (Canberra: Australian Nat'l Univ., Working Paper, 1997),
available at http://www.aic.giv.au/rjustice/rise/working/risepap1.html.
n10 See section II, infra.
n11 ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY (Douglas Harper, ed., 2001), at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?
l=s&p=16.
n12 Unacknowledged shame perpetuates "entrapment in one's own isolation," creating further shame and increased
isolation. ALLAN N. SCHORE, AFFECT REGULATION AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SELF: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 248 (1994). See also, Simone Fullager, Wasted Lives: The Social Dynamics of Shame
and Youth Suicide, 39 J. SOC. 291, 297 (2002) (Unrecognized shame generates an "unending spiral" of painful
feelings of self-loathing).
n13 Nancy Eisenberg, Emotion, Regulation and Moral Development, 51 ANN. REV. PSYCHOL. 665, 667 (2000)
(quoting T.J. Ferguson & H. Stegge, Measuring Guilt in Children: A Rose by Any Other Name Still Has Thorns, in
GUILT AND CHILDREN 20 (Jane Bybee ed., 1998)).
n14 Id.; see also MARIO JACOBY, SHAME AND THE ORIGINS OF SELF-ESTEEM: A JUNGIAN APPROACH 95 (1996)
(Shame "sends us into isolation or retreat.").
n15 Eisenberg, supra note 13, at 668.
n16 Id.; see also Miriam Chernoff, et al., Toward Forgiveness: The Role of Shame, Guilt, Anger and Empathy, 46
COUNSELING AND VALUES 26, 33 (2001) ("Guilt, in contrast to shame, serves to engage individuals in a process
supportive of resolution of conflict and forgiveness.").
n17 SCHORE, supra note 12, at 204.
n18 See D.L. NATHANSON, SHAME AND PRIDE: AFFECT, SEX AND THE BIRTH OF THE SELF 209 (1992).
n19 Id. at 316-17.
n20 These "life scripts" are sets of "layered associations" concerning our personal size, strength, ability, skill ("I am
weak, incompetent, stupid"); dependence and independence ("I am helpless"); ability to compete ("I am a loser");
sense of self ("I am unique only to the extent that I am defective"); personal attractiveness ("I am ugly or deformed");
sexuality ("There is something wrong with me sexually"); public presence ("I wish a hole would open up in the ground
and swallow me"); and, wishes or fears about closeness ("I am not fit for human company; I am unloved and will be
alone forever."). Id.
n21 Id. at 365.
n22 Id.
n23 Id. at 66.
n24 Tangney, supra note 3, at 343-44 ("The distinction between shame and guilt . . . is an important one. Numerous
empirical studies [citations omitted] underscore that shame and guilt differ importantly along affective, cognitive and
motivational dimensions.").
n25 Eisenberg, supra note 13, at 665; see also Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 ("With [guilt's] focus on a behavior
(rather than the self) comes a sense of tension, remorse, and regret. The person in the midst of a guilt experience
often feels a press to confess, apologize, or make amends for the bad deed that was done . . . Because a behavior -
not the self - is the object of approbation, the self remains mobilized and ready to take reparative action to the extent
that circumstances allow.").
n26 Eisenberg, supra note13, at 679.
n27 Id. at 679-80.
n28 Id. at 680 (Research has repeatedly shown that children who experience guilt offend less often than those who do
not.); see also Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 (Guilt is adaptive, serving to "protect the self from unwarranted global
devaluation, while at the same time keeping the door open for remedying the guilt-inducing behavior and/or making
amends for its consequences. In a very real sense, then, guilt is a hopeful, future-oriented moral affective
experience.").
n29 HELEN B. LEWIS, SHAME AND GUILT IN NEUROSIS 88, 90-91, 251-252 (1971).
n30 SCHORE, supra note 12, at 242.
n31 Id. at 242-43.
n32 Id. at 242.
n33 Id.
n34 Id.
n35 Id.
n36 Id.
n37 Id. at 242-43.
n38 Id. at 243.
n39 Id. at 246.
n40 Id.
n41 Id. at 247.
n42 Id. at 247-48.
n43 Id.
n44 Id.
n45 Id.
n46 Id. at 248.
n47 Id.
n48 Research in child development shows that "securely attached" toddlers readily separate from their primary care-
taker to check out novel environments, freely and easily share with their parental figure on an emotional level and are
readily comforted when distressed, returning easily to play. NATHANSON, supra note 18, at 232-33. This early "secure
attachment" forms the necessary basis for healthy, stable and satisfying personal relationships in adulthood. JOHN H.
KENNELL, BONDING: BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF SECURE ATTACHMENT AND INDEPENDENCE 192 (1995)
("Without a secure base established in infancy, humans from childhood throughout adult life may develop and cling to
the belief that the world is unstable, and that they cannot safely trust others.").
n49 Tangney, supra note 3, at 344 ("Research . . . indicates that shame can engender a hostile, defensive type of
anger [citations omitted] presumably aimed at a real or imagined disapproving other.").
n50 Id. ("The person in the midst of a guilt experience often feels a press to confess, apologize or make amends for
the bad deed done.").
n51 Id. at 344-45 ("Guilt fosters an adaptive, constructive orientation toward others, whereas shame invokes a number
of processes that are likely to be detrimental to interpersonal relationships" such as shame's tendency to "interfere
with other-oriented empathic concern." Guilt, on the other hand, "appears to enhance other-oriented empathy.").
n52 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285 (Families that fail to discipline misbehavior, as well as those that reject the
misbehaving child and impose "harsh, unreasoning and punitive" sanctions are more likely to raise children who
engage in criminal behavior than those that condemn wrong-doing but respect the wrong-doer.).
n53 Id. at 294.
n54 Toni Massaro, Shame, Culture and American Criminal Law, 89 MICH. L. REV. 1880, 1936-37 (1991) [hereinafter
"Massaro"].
n55 Richard Delgado, Goodbye to Hammurabi: Analyzing the Atavistic Appeal of Restorative Justice, 52 STAN. L. REV.
751, 765 (2000) [hereinafter "Delgado"].
n56 DANIEL VAN NESS & KAREN H. STRONG, RESTORING JUSTICE 10 (1997).
n57 Delgado, supra note 55, at 761.
n58 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 291 ("Reintegrative shaming, according to the theory, will be more widespread
in societies where communities are strong, where citizens are densely enmeshed in loving, trust and respectful
relationships with others."); Massaro, supra note 54, at 1922-23.
n59 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1922-23.
n60 Id.
n61 Id.
n62 Id.
n63 Id.
n64 These qualities are known as ubuntu in Africa. DESMOND TUTU, NO FUTURE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS 31-32
(1999). A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others
are able or good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a
greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or
treated as if they were less than who they are. Id.
n65 JOHN OWEN HALEY, AUTHORITY WITHOUT POWER: LAW AND THE JAPANESE PARADOX 136 (1991) (studies
have found that offenders "relieve distress experienced after committing a crime harmful to others by justification,
derogating the victim and denying responsibility or restitution."); see also Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285
("Harsh, unreasoning and punitive discipline combined with rejection of the child" is "particularly criminogenic." (quoting
ROBERT SAMPSON & JOHN LAUB, CRIME IN THE MAKING AND TURNING POINTS THROUGH LIFE 122 (1995))).
n66 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 288.
n67 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1919 ("Labeling theorists believe that the[] negative consequences of stigmatizing
offenders outweigh any benefits." "Specifically, they argue that by labeling an offender 'deviant' -- which shaming
sanctions clearly try to do -- the state may produce 'secondary deviance,' or criminal acts that are a result of the
labeling.").
n68 Davis & Jansen, Making Meaning of Alcoholics Anonymous for Social Workers: Myths, Metaphors, and Realities,
43 SOC. WORK 169, 178-79 (1998) [hereinafter "Making Meaning"] (suggesting that there are many "extended"
meanings embedded in one's self-identification as an alcoholic, including the assertion that despite one's alcoholism,
the AA member is "sober today and participating in AA to help his mental, spiritual and physical recovery.").
n69 See generally KATHLEEN S. LOWNEY, BARING OUR SOULS: TV TALK SHOWS AND THE RELIGION OF
RECOVERY (1999) [hereinafter "BARING SOULS"].
n70 Davis & Jansen, Making Meaning of Alcoholics Anonymous for Social Workers: Myths, Metaphors, and Realities,
43 SOC. WORK 169, 170 (1998) [hereinafter "Making Meaning"] (These were the existing attitudes in 1935 when late-
stage alcoholics Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith joined together to created what is now known as Alcoholics
Anonymous.).
n71 Members of the public categorize offenders as people with anti-social temperaments and dispositions. JULIAN V.
ROBERTS & LORETTA J. STALANS, PUBLIC OPINION, CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE 31 (1997). The public
therefore appears to attribute crime not to external circumstances (such as provocation or loss of a job) but the
personality attributes of the offender. Id. This "once an offender, always an offender" view is likely to affect large
numbers of people, especially in the United States where state information systems carry criminal record information
on fifty million individuals. Id.
n72 GEORGE H. JENSEN, STORYTELLING IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 115 (2000)
[hereinafter "STORYTELLING"].
n73 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 175 (When people with similar problems join together for the purpose of
solving them, they feel empowered and able to control some aspect of their lives, particularly where the help is not
given to them from the outside.).
n74 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 178-79.
n75 STORYTELLING, supra note 72, at 115.
n76 Id.
n77 Some people, in a likely attempt to further reduce the shame of alcoholism, introduce themselves as "recovering
alcoholics" and some as "grateful recovering alcoholics." See e.g., Byron Roberts, Golden Age: AA Celebrates 60
Sober Years, INSIGHT ON THE NEWS, June 26, 1995, available at www.questia.com/PMqst?a=o&d=50000310303 ("At
meetings, speakers introduce themselves - 'My name is Sarah and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic'- and then they
launch into . . . stories that are often grim, but laced with irony and self-deprecating humor and laughs. . . . As one AA
member says, 'no matter how miserable and agonizing the stories are, they all have a happy ending because you're
hearing them at an AA meeting.'").
n78 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 178-79.
n79 Id.
n80 Concealing one's alcoholism, like hiding other stigmatic self-identifications such as homosexuality, has negative
consequences to one's physical health and social relationships.
n81 Annette R. Smith, The Social Construction of Group Dependency In Alcoholics Anonymous, 23 J. DRUG ISSUES
689, 698 (1993) ("The alcoholic must dismantle negative self-concepts . . . from the knowledge of harm his . . .
drinking has done to others and the negative labeling and control strategies imposed by society." Id. AA accomplishes
this goal by "encouraging full disclosure of his 'wrongs' in order to have them demystified, where they can then be
'righted' by 'making amends' and embarking on a more spiritual path which includes helping others."); see also Making
Meaning, supra note 70, at 179 (reinterpreting the alcoholic experience as spiritually bankrupt gives meaning to a
"past filled with degradation and chaos and creates hope for . . . a different future.").
n82 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LESBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL EXPERIENCES 272 (Garnets & Kimmell
eds., 2002).
n83 Id.
n84 Id.
n85 One is not, of course, an "offender" or an "ex-offender" but an individual who has been convicted of committing a
crime. Nevertheless, society stigmatizes such individuals as being ex-offenders, which often leads those individuals to
incorporate offending into their own self-conception. Bruce G. Link & Jo C. Phelan, Conceptualizing Stigma, 27 ANN.
REV. SOC. 363, 375 (2001), http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001041349 [hereinafter "Stigma"]. As some
commentators have suggested:
To the extent that stigmatized groups accept the dominant view of their lower status, they are less likely to challenge
structural forms of discrimination that block opportunities they desire. Further, direct discrimination reinforces the belief
among stigmatized groups that they will be treated in accordance with stereotypes and therefore reinforces processes
like those explicated in the context of modified labeling theory and the stereotype-threat concept.
Id.
n86 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 176; see also HIGH ANXIETIES: CULTURAL STUDIES IN ADDICTION 99 (Janet
Farrell Brodie & Marc Redfield eds., 2002) (Although AA uses a discourse of disease to account for alcoholism, the
program does not suggest any medical or therapeutic "cure" or "treatment" for the problem; it offers instead a "spiritual
solution." In this sense, AA's discourse does not treat alcoholism literally as a disease: disease functions in AA
discourse as a rhetorical trope, a metaphor for the alcoholic's condition).
n87 Making Meaning, supra note 70, at 175; see also DAVID R. RUDY, BECOMING ALCOHOLIC: ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS AND THE REALITY OF ALCOHOLISM 135 (1986).
n88 Research on stigma has demonstrated that self-disclosure is an effective strategy for reducing the stress
associated with concealment and for enhancing one's self-esteem if done in an atmosphere of trust and
understanding. Stigma, supra note 85, at 380.
n89 Francis J. Schweigert, Moral Education in Victim Offender Conferencing, 18 CRIM. JUST. ETHICS 29, 36 (1999),
available at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mihb3009/is199906/ain7652405. The recognition of human fallibility
not only serves to reduce both self-loathing and grandiosity, but also reconnects recovering members to the human
community. Id. AA reminds its members that:
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to the ... principles [of the twelve steps].
We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are
guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, THE STORY OF HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF MEN AND WOMEN HAVE RECOVERED
FROM ALCOHOLISM 60 (4th ed. 2001) [hereinafter "BIG BOOK"].
n90 THOMAS J. SCHEFF, HONOR AND SHAME: LOCAL PEACE-MAKING THROUGH COMMUNITY CONFERENCES
(Conference Paper, 1997) published at www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/scheff6.html.
n91 Id. As one commentator has noted, because the "language of AA is the language of narrative and metaphor, it is
easily misunderstood outside the context of lived experience and of the meaning-making of the membership as a whole
...." Making Meaning, supra note 66, at 172.
n92 HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH VULNERABLE AND RESILIENT POPULATIONS 67 (Alex
Gitterman ed., 2001). The defining feature of alcoholism is the "loss of control" over drinking - meaning that alcoholics
cannot reliably predict when they will stop drinking once they start nor how much they will consume once them have
begun. Id. It is for this reason that alcoholics say "it is the first drink that gets you drunk." See, e.g., http://www.12steps.
org/12stephelp/shortreads/WISE.htm, one of the hundreds of web sites recounting AA folk sayings, aphorisms and
slogans.
n93 As reported by one hospital web site; late stage alcoholism includes an obsession with alcohol that excludes all
other concerns; often involves round-the-clock drinking despite an inability to keep down the first drinks in the
morning; causes the alcoholic to become phobic of crowds and public places and to be suffused with remorse and
guilt, which can only be alleviated by more drinking. See COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF P & S COMPLETE
HOME MEDICAL GUIDE, at http://www.diabetic-help.com/sxalcworksinbody.htm. Homelessness often ensues, as do
terminal medical conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver. Id. The late stage alcoholic begins to suffer from severe
withdrawal symptoms if alcohol is withheld, including the shakes, delirium tremens, and convulsions. Id. Without
hospitalization or residency in a therapeutic community, late-stage alcoholics usually succumb to insanity and death.
n94 Id.
n95 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 31.
n96 Id.
n97 BAUMAND & BURNES, A NATION IN DENIAL, THE TRUTH ABOUT HOMLESSNESS 17 (1993) ("Alcoholism
continues to be the most significant problem connected to modern homelessness." The "general consensus is that
approximately 40 percent of homeless adults have significant alcohol problems.").
n98 See generally, Randi Cartmill & Robert Parker, Alcohol and Homicide in the United States 1934-1995 - or One
Reason Why U.S. Rates of Violence May Be Going Down, 88 J. CRIM. LAW & CRIMINOLOGY 1369 (1998) (There is a
statistically significant correlation between alcohol consumption and homicide. Id. at 1375-76).
n99 MEN HEALING SHAME: AN ANTHOLOGY 6 (Robert Bly, ed., 1995) (suggesting that denial is a means of reducing
the shame of alcoholism).
n100 Id.
n101 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 285, 287.
n102 Id.
n103 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 180.
n104 Id. (emphasis added).
n105 See, e.g. Smith, supra note 81, at 693 (Resocialization of the alcoholic requires the presence of "significant
others with whom he must establish strongly affective identification" leading to the formation of a partnership "in
significant conversation change.").
n106 Braithwaite, Shaming, supra note 4, at 69 (shaming is likely to be less effective if those shamed tend to be
different from those doing the shaming).
n107 VILLA V. BONDESON, ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT: INTENTIONS AND REALITY 236 (1994).
n108 Empathy has been variously defined. For our purposes it suffices to say that a person experiences and exhibits
empathy when she experiences and responds to distress in others by feeling distress herself and attempting to
diminish the pain felt by others. MARK H. DAVIS, EMPATHY: A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH 9 (1994) ("As
role-taking skills develop, this other-oriented distress increasingly becomes a form of true compassion for others."
Empathy fosters altruism and enhances social success.).
n109 DANNY M. WILCOX, ALCOHOLIC THINKING: LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND BELIEF IN ALCOHOLICS
ANONYMOUS 77 (1998). As anthropologist Wilcox explains,
Although each individual will have personalized variations, the general theme [of the AA recovery story] is one of losing
control, first over drinking, then over other aspects of everyday existence. This is followed by an awareness that a
problem exists, but a continuing denial that the problem is 'alcoholism.' Finally, the ego structure that displaces,
minimizes, and rationalizes the behavior collapses due to the massive accumulation of empirical evidence gathered
over an extended period of time by the individual (citation omitted). Once this collapse takes place and the individual
'hits bottom," the process of change has begun and it is possible to recover.'
Id.
n110 Id. at 120.
n111 Susan Stephenson, Narrative, Identity and Modernity, Discussion Paper for ECPR Workshop "The Political Uses
of Narrative" (March 29-31, 1999), at http://www.essex.ac.
uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/mannheim/w22/Stephenson.PDF#search='narrative,%20identity%20and%
20modernity%20and%20stephenson'.
n112 VAN NESS, supra note 56, at 69-70.
n113 Id.
n114 Id.
n115 Id.
n116 See Victor Witter Turner, Symbolic Studies, 4 ANN. REV. ANTHROPOLOGY, 145, 159 (1975), available at http:
//www.jstar.org. Though not magic, it is more like folk medicine than western "treatment." Id. "The healing rite in 'folk' or
'tribal' medicine is seen to be more than the typing and labeling of diseases and symptoms and the restoration of
health. It is rather the mobilization of efficacy through symbolic action for restoring internal integrity to the patient and
order to his community." Id.
n117 Author's Observation, Midtown Manhattan AA meeting, January 2004.
n118 MICHAEL TONRY, THE HANDBOOK OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 334 (2000) (including in VOMs "people who
enjoy maximum respect and trust on both the offender's and the victim's side, we maximize the changes that shame will
be dealt with in a reintegrative way.").
n119 Massaro, supra note 54, at 1936.
n120 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 291.
n121 Schweigert, supra note 89, at 37.
n122 Id.
n123 Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 292 (quoting Sampson, Raudenbush & Earls, Neighborhoods and Violent
Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy, 277 SCIENCE 918 (1997)).
n124 Ethan G. Kallet, Twelve Steps, You're Out (Of Prison): An Evaluation of "Anonymous Progrmas" as Alternative
Sentences, 48 HASTINGS L.J. 129, 152 n.131 (1996); see also Lisa Loving, Treatment Program Helps Keep Convicts
From Returning to Jail: N.E. Portland Group Offers Counseling, Job Assistance to Ex-Cons, PORTLAND SKANNER,
Feb. 21, 2001, available at http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc3.asp?DOCID=1P1:
79639967&num=1&ctrlInfo=Round10%3AProd%3ASR%3AResult&ao=&FreePremium=BOTH.
n125 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 26, 29, 66.
n126 Id. at 21.
n127 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83 (promising "a new freedom and a new happiness" if the alcoholic is
"painstaking" about taking a thorough inventory of one's misdeeds and making amends for them all).
n128 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 59 ("The newcomer is immediately accepted and supported by the AA community
with very little reservation. . . They are encouraged to not drink, come to meetings, and read the Big Book. If they do
these things, they are optimistically reassured that "things will get better." . . . Newcomers are told that they must
accept their limitations as human beings and submit to a power greater than themselves. It is relatively easy to modify
one's behavior in relation to drinking and become more honest, sociable, competent, energetic, and optimistic as a
result of not being intoxicated and out of control.").
n129 Author's observation in Los Angeles and Sacramento Counties, California; London, England; New York City;
Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and, Toronto, Ontario AA meetings 1994 through 2005.
n130 Id.; see also Smith, supra note 81, at 702 (recommending temporary sponsorship for new AA members who are
not naturally "affiliative").
n131 Author's observation in Los Angeles and Sacramento Counties, California; London, England; New York City;
Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; and, Toronto, Ontario AA meetings 1994 through 2005.
n132 Id.
n133 Smith, supra note 81, at 694-95.
n134 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 21-22.
n135 Wilcox describes the beneficial effect of AA "recovery stories" from his own personal experience as follows:
As I entered the meeting place, I observed the other people sitting around waiting for the meeting to begin. There were
only six to eight people in the room when I entered. At least half of them extended cordial greetings and two of them
introduced themselves. A strong feeling of guilt and embarrassment was present. . . When I walked through the door, I
had no intention of accepting "total abstinence" . . . After listening to the speaker for an hour that morning, I had heard
enough similarity between the story he told and my own experience to accept a desire chip, a small metal token
symbolizing the desire to quit drinking. Extremely inspired by the possibilities of abstinence, I was able to not take a
drink for about a week.
Id.; see also Smith, supra note 81, at 696 (stressing the importance to the process of group affiliation of hearing one's
own drinking story told by another).
n136 WILCOX, supra note 109, at 21-22.
n137 Those steps are: 1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become
unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision
to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made
direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to
take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all of our affairs. BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 59-60.
n138 Id. at 63-70 (emphasis added). This is the work that is prerequisite to the "promises" quoted below. Id. at 83.
n139 Smith, supra note 81, at 698. As Smith notes:
The alcoholic must . . . dismantle negative self-concepts that he or she has adopted from the knowledge of harm his or
her drinking has done to others and the negative labeling and control strategies imposed by society. The basic AA
methodology for this is to encourage full disclosure of these "wrongs" in order to have them demystified, where they
can then be "righted" by "making amends" and embarking on a more spiritual path, which includes helping others. This
process is embodied in Steps 4 through 12."
Id.
n140 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83. This echoes reintegrative shaming's goal of focusing on the criminal act rather
than on the criminal offender. That we can take responsibility without shame is repeatedly emphasized in the Big Book.
This particular paragraph of the Big Book ends by advising that "as God's people we stand on our feet; we don't crawl
before anyone." Id.
n141 Id.
n142 Id. at 59.
n143 Id. at 62 (As a result of sharing our moral inventory with another, we "emerge from isolation through the open
and honest sharing of our terrible burden of guilt which brings us to a resting place where we may prepare ourselves
for the following Steps toward a full and meaningful recovery.").
n144 Smith, supra note 81, at 696 ("The development of a dyadic, significant-other relationship serves as an initial
impetus for beginning the process of integration" into the AA group.).
n145 "Often it was while working . . . Step Five with our sponsors or spiritual advisers that we first felt truly able to
forgive others, no matter how deeply we felt they had wronged us. Our moral inventory had persuaded us that all-
round forgiveness was desirable, but it was only when we resolutely tackled Step Five that we inwardly knew we'd be
able to receive forgiveness and give it too." ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, THE TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE
TRADITIONS 58 (1981) [hereinafter TWELVE AND TWELVE].
n146 Id.
n147 Id. at 72; see also Braithwaite 2000, supra note 5, at 282.
n148 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 59.
n149 Step Eight requires the alcoholic to make a list of "all persons he had harmed and became willing to make
amends to them all" and Step Nine to "make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others." Id. at 59.
n150 Joan Ellen Zweben, The Therapist's Role in Early and Ongoing Recovery, in TREATING ALCOHOLISM 221
(Stephanie Brown ed., 1995).
n151 GUEST & PARKER, THE CLINICIANS' GUIDE TO 12-STEP PROGRAMS: HOW, WHEN AND WHY TO REFER A
CLIENT 5 (1999).
n152 As the "Big Book" says,
There may be some wrongs we can never fully right. We don't worry about them if we can honestly say to ourselves
that we would right them if we could. Some people cannot be seen -- we send them an honest letter. And there may be
a valid reason for postponement in some cases. But we don't delay if it can be avoided. We should be sensible, tactful,
considerate and humble without being servile or scraping."
BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83.
n153 Id.
n154 Id.
n155 TWELVE AND TWELVE, supra note 145, at 93.
n156 Id. at 91 ("Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen. We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious,
power driven argument.").
n157 Id. at 84.
n158 Id. at 79-80.
n159 Id. at 84.
n160 Id. at 77-78.
n161 Id.
n162 Studies have shown that being a "twelve-step" sponsor increases the chances that a substance abuser will still
be abstinent a year after discontinuing drug use. Friend, et al., Helping Other Alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous and
Drinking Outcomes: Findings from Project MATCH, 65 J. STUD. ON ALCOHOL 766, 770 (2004). Some have suggested
that the correlation between sponsorship and an increased likelihood of abstinence arises from greater treatment
involvement and motivation for lifestyle change. Id. Another study found that the total amount of time spent in
community-related helping was significantly related to length of sobriety. Id.
n163 BIG BOOK, supra note 89, at 83.
n164 Id. at 84
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