Working Lunch, April 20: Shame, guilt and delinquency

Postgraduate researcher Arne De Boeck is visiting Scotland from the University of Leuven and will be delivering a working lunch this week about his research on the social origins of adolescents’ anticipated shame and guilt feelings in delinquent situations.

Arne will present the first results of a quantitative study in which several hypotheses on the differences in adolescents’ anticipated shame-guilt feelings in delinquent situations were tested. The sample was collected in Genk, a multi-ethnic city in which a secularized catholic majority lives side by side with a Muslim minority.

His working lunch presentation will deal with two obvious questions raised by his findings:

• In what sense are shame and guilt important for understanding why youngsters do or don’t offend?
• Why do some adolescents anticipate stronger feelings of shame and guilt in delinquent situations than others?

The working lunch will start at 12.30pm and tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

Arne will present on the same topic at an AQMeN guest lecture at the University of Edinburgh on April 27.