本文的目的是比較以國家行使的法律處罰、自我產生的恥感以及外界社會強化的尷尬感三種社會控制因素對臺灣青少年偏差行為的嚇阻效果。我們有兩點重要發現。首先,本文的研究結果與學者Grasmick等人於一九九三年的研究結論部份相同,那就是自我內化的恥感可以顯著的減低青少年偏差行為,其效果遠較嚴厲與確定的法律處罰來得大。另外,本研究結果也發現西方犯罪嚇阻理論必須注意各種偏差行為的分類問題,因為恥感對某些特定的偏差行為具有強烈的嚇阻效果,對某些偏差行為則否。至於偏差行為的分類標準,則須將文化差異列入考慮因素之一。
The study attempts to determine how formal and informal social controls-namely, legal sanctions, shame and embarrassment-differentially deter juvenile delinquency in Taiwan. Major findings include: (1) shame has a significant effect on deterring delinquency while legal sanctions and embarrassment fail to prevent some delinquency acts; (2) the cultural factor on categorizing delinquent acts plays a substantial role to assess the importance for deterrent effects of social control. The results suggest that the significance of family values as a way of social control in Chinese culture is 3 embodying a moral obligation to conformity.