The Role of Guilt and Regret in Reducing Recidivism: Enhancing Rehabilitation Through Moral and Emotional Reflection.

Abstract

The present study investigates the role of emotions in criminal behaviour, focusing on guilt and regret, and examines their inhibitory mechanisms in promoting desistance and supporting rehabilitation. Using a narrative literature review, the findings show that emotions remain underexplored in criminology despite their significant role in regulating behaviour. Evidence suggests that guilt-proneness individuals show lower reoffending rates, as guilt encourages responsibility-taking long-term behavioural change, whereas shame has an association with avoidance, blame externalisation, and mixed results on reoffending depending on how it is experienced. Regret, though underexplored, shows strong conceptual and phenomenological overlap with guilt and may play a role in reducing reoffending through counterfactual thinking. By highlighting the role of emotions in criminal behaviour, the study concludes that a greater integration of moral emotions into criminological theory and emotion-focused interventions could enhance self-deterrence and long-term behavioural change, thereby reducing reoffending.