Help please.

There is a word that relates to someone who does a crime or an act and feels bad about it, but not because they did a bad thing, but rather because they got caught. Does anyone know this word? It has been on Wordsmith but I cannot find it.

Help?

Thanks
Sue

this smacks of consequentialism - an ethical doctrine which holds that the morality of an action is to be judged solely by its consequences; cf. teleological ethics (but this doesn't turn up in the archives)

Thanks but no. It is a word something like recidivist, a description of the person or how they feel.Thanks for trying though.

A recidivist is one who is prone to repeating a crime, guilt
notwithstanding. None there.

Sheepish is as close as I could come (on he first page anyhow)

http://onelook.com/?w=*%3Aembarrassment+getting+caught&ls=a

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sheepishness

Why the second link duly turned blue and got underlined nut the second one didn't is just one of those peculiarities of the digital world that might take one four yeas or so of committed study to unravel but on behalf of Bill ad Mac I apologize for the inconsistency

This word would apply to that man who did the pyramid investment scheme and 60 billion dollars disappeared. After he had been caught he said to the papers, I am really sorry. Sorry for doing it or sorry for getting caught? I know there is a word for this!

Sociopath?