Staff Information

Nathan is a Fellow at RegNet. Previously he has held appointments as a Lecturer at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His research interests revolve around a number of topics:

• Restorative justice with a particular emphasis on exploring social dynamics within family group conferences that explain their apparent success. This research builds on reintegrative shaming theory to explore differences between conferences and courts in the way disapproval is expressed and the differences in emotions that are experienced.


• Moral emotions of shame, guilt and embarrassment, and in particular the dimensionality of these emotions, the social context in which they occur, their influence on decision-making, and their role in processes of conformity and influence.


• New regulatory approaches to child protection. He is currently working on an ARC funded project that explores the potential to use responsive regulation as a means to address child protection concerns through building local community capacity. This project explores the emotional reactivity of parents to interventions by child protection services and their impact on future capacity to care. The importance of institutions that are responsive to the good will of parents, build on care networks within communities, are reintegrative, and encourage positive emotional dynamics will be explored (http://demgov.anu.edu.au/childprotection).

Selected publications:

Harris, N. (in press, 2009). Shame, Ethical Identity and Justice Interventions: Lessons from Research on the Psychology of Influence. In S. Karstedt, I. Loader & H. Strang (Eds.), Emotions, Crime and Justice. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Harris, N., & Wood, J. (2008). Governing beyond command and control: A responsive and nodal approach to child protection. In M. Deflem (Ed.), Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Harris, N. (2008). Family group conferencing in Australia 15 years on. Child Abuse Prevention Issues, 27, 1-19.

Muphy, K., & Harris, N. (2007). Shaming, shame and recidivism: A test of reintegrative shaming theory in the white-collar crime context. British Journal of Criminology.

Harris, N. (2007). Mapping the adoption of Family Group Conferencing in Australian States and Territories. Adelaide: Australian Centre for Child Protection.

Harris, N. (2006). Reintegrative Shaming, shame and criminal justice. Journal of Social Issues, 62(2), 327-346.

Harris, N., & Maruna, S. (2006). Shame, shaming and restorative justice: A critical appraisal. In D. Sullivan & L. Tifft (Eds.), Handbook of Restorative Justice: A Global Perspective. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Harris, N., Walgrave, L., & Braithwaite, J. (2004). Emotional Dynamics in Restorative Conferences. Theoretical Criminology, 8(2), 191-210.

Harris, N. (2003). Reassessing the dimensionality of the moral emotions. British Journal of Psychology, 94(4), 457-473.

Harris, N. (2003). Evaluating the practice of restorative justice: the case of family group conferencing. In L. Walgrave (Ed.), Repositioning restorative justice. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

Vanfraechem, I., & Harris, N. (2003). Family Group Conferences in Belgium. In F. Dünkel & H. Drenkhahn (Eds.), Youth violence: new patterns and local responses - Experiences in East and West (pp. 713-725). Munich: Forum Verag Godesberg.

Harris, N., & Braithwaite, J. (2001). Guilt. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 6445-6448). Oxford: Pergamon.

Ahmed, E., Harris, N., Braithwaite, J., & Braithwaite, V. (2001). Shame management through reintegration. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Harris, N., & Burton, J. B. (1998). Testing the reliability of observational measures of reintegrative shaming at community accountability conferences and at court. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 31, 230-241.