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Crime consequences
Crime consequences
Criminal justice system crime prevention
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Public Shaming is defined as a judicial punishment imposed on a convicted criminal that includes humiliation in public instead of imprisonment. In Nathaniel Hawthorne 's novel The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans use public humiliation to punish those for their sins. Public humiliation may seem like the best punishment; however, in the novel Dimmesdale seems to suffer more from his own mind than Hester does by being put into public humiliation. Today, judges are still using public shaming as punishment for moderate and intense crimes. Judges believe that public humiliation can cause a greater change in a person than just sending them to jail; however, this is not a fact. Public humiliation should not still be used as a form of punishment for crime. …show more content…
However, many people support public shaming and judges decisions to do so. These people support this because they believe “that they are a good way to express communal value” and “a powerful deterrent” to crime (“Their Object”). However, the government is supposed to follow the specific law guidelines that were created by the government officials because it is proven this works and gives everyone equal punishment. Public humiliation is too harsh of a punishment and can be “worse even than jail time, house arrest, fines, or community service” (Beato). This humiliation also opposes our country 's constitution. The punishment could be considered “cruel and unusual” punishment, and it could “undermine human dignity” (“Their Object”). The government already has the most power in the country, and by not following the specific guidelines given to them just proves how much extra power they have to control the country’s citizens. Even though our country is “for the people”, government has a strong hold on to the people. The United States of America was created on the fact that all citizens have their own rights and by forcing a person to be humiliated in front of many people is uncivilized and ill-mannered. Given that the government has the most power, the officials should not use this power for the wrong reasons and punish criminals by publicly shaming
He suggests flogging, but he gives no evidence as to why flogging would be more effective. Since Jacoby does not consider any other alternatives to prison such as community service, loss of privileges, or in extreme cases, exile, his argument that flogging is the best alternative is unconvincing to the reader. Also, he fails to define flogging or give proof that physical punishment would lower the high crime rate in the United States. Thus, while his article raises compelling concerns about the American prison system, Jeff Jacoby fails to persuade his audience that flogging is the best alternative to
According to Jacoby, flogging is faster, cheaper, and a more effective alternative to prison. Many young criminals would be less likely to become career criminals if punished through public embarrassment than through prison. Prison can be a sign of manliness or a “status symbol” (Jacoby 197). He says “prison is a graduate school for criminals”, providing evidence that criminals want to be convicted and be in prison, to strengthen their status (Jacoby 197). Jacoby knows how to properly get his view across to the reader, by saying that ...
letter *A* embroidered on her chest. The A served as a symbol of her crime, was
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, everyone had some form of a secret they’d rather not share, but sometimes not telling can do more harm than good. At the end of the film, Hawthorne left us a quote saying, “Be true, be true, be true.” Hawthorne is trying to say keeping secrets isn't always the best because it only leads to someone getting hurt.
In “Bring Back Flogging”, Jeff Jacoby argues why the current criminal justice system in America is not effective or successful. As a solution, he suggests that America should bring back the old fashioned form of punishment once used by the puritans, flogging, as an alternative to imprisonment (198). This article originally appeared in the op-ed section of the Boston Globe newspaper. Therefore, the primary audience of this article is people who want to read arguments about controversial topics and have probably read some of his other articles. His argument that the current criminal justice system is not working is extremely convincing. He appeals to pathos and uses statistics to prove that thesis and to persuade the audience.
“Only the man who has enough good in him to feel the justice of the penalty can be punished; the other can only be hurt.'; This is a very interesting quote, and depending what you make of it, it can be very confusing. To most people this quote might not mean anything, but you
The “Bring Back Foolishness” Jeff Jacobys’ essay, entitled “Bring Back Flogging” was, in my sincere opinion, poorly constructed. There are numerous instances where I felt that he had either not supported his premises with valid information or had negated his support in later sentences. The essay begins by drawing forth images of Puritan punishment. He cites two instances of punishment, which were particularly torturous and radical in nature. He then draws a comparison between this inhumane punishment and imprisonment by stating with irony that, “Now we practice a more enlightened, more humane way of disciplining wrong doers: we lock them up in cages.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
Jacoby starts his essay by providing a background history on flogging by relating the punishment to crimes that are insignificant in today’s society. He claims that imprisonment has become an “all purpose punishment” used for violent and nonviolent crimes alike (193). Citing a plethora of facts and research, Jacoby argues that the prison system is ineffective and too costly. To support his claim, he advocates for a system of public humiliation and degradation to deter lower class criminals from becoming repeat offenders. Jacoby realizes that flogging’s “crimes of the day” are not our crimes, but maintains that flogging is effective in current society and not any more brutal than being caged (194).
Guilt is a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, whether real or imagined. There are different types of guilt. Guilt can be caused by a physical thing a person did that he isn’t proud of, or wanted to hide, can be something a person imagined he did to someone or something else, or can be caused when a person did something to his God or religion. Everyone at some time in his or her life has a run in with guilt, and it has a different impact on each person. People, who are feeling guilty because of something they did or said, can influence how other people act and feel. Some people are affected worse by guilt than others, for example, Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. Talked about in The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale, a man with the deepest guilt, was responsible for the moral well-being of his people. He went against his teachings, committed adultery, and left the woman to suffer publicly alone while he stayed like a hero in the town. On the other hand, sometimes the masses are affected by one person’s guilt. He was affected much more by guilt, because he didn’t tell anyone of what he had done. By keeping guilt internalized, a person ultimately ends up hurting himself. More than seventy percent of all things that make people feel guilty are found out later on in their life by other people. Guilt has three categories that it affects the most in people: physical, mental, and spiritual.
Progressing forward, Jeff Jacoby, columnist for The Boston Globe, provides readers with his view of “Boston’s Forefathers’” system of punishment in his essay, “Bring Back Flogging.” Within the contents of his work, Jacoby describes how flogging was utilized as punishment in its day. One such example he utilizes involves a woman who pleaded guilty to committing adultery. He writes that her punishment was “fifteen stripes severally to be laid on upon her naked back at the Common Whipping post” (Jacoby 1). In his piece, Jacoby argues for the revival of flogging and Puritan style punishment in the United States.
As we read the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” we were acquainted with the manner the Puritan society branded their sinners contingent on the immoralities they have committed. They believed that punishing these sinners by humiliation was the prominent way for them to bear the cost of their debauchery. Resembling this past our present has been subject to this same form of branding and labeling. We judge the way the Puritan society strictly punished its citizens by putting them on scaffolds where they were publicly humiliated. We hypocritically judge this form of punishment when we are practicing these same immoral acts. Although we are not putting them on scaffolds or literally branding people we are causing them the same kind of degradation and bestowing on them labels that will hurt them the same way.
In the piece Shame on You by Paul A. Trout, he discusses the value and disrespect involved in shaming and how this has changed our academia values in our current society. In this work, he both discusses how shame has changed the interactions between professor and students and also the backlash if a teacher goes too far in their shaming.
The first chapter sets the scene for the novel: Boston, during the seventeenth century. During this period, religion is the foundation for both the laws and the society. We are introduced to the town's cemetery and nearby prison. Next to the prison grows a wild rosebush. We can think of the wild rosebush as representing the beauty of nature, and the prison as the symbol of societies need to tame nature.
The shaming of offenders has been in existence since the late 18th century. It was a form of corrections that was used to serve justice by offenders who had committed criminal acts. Offenders who had committed crimes against person or property were likely to be handed a sentence of shaming. In lieu of serving a sentence in a cell or incapacitated place, an offender could be sentenced to some degree of public punishment that would attempt to reform the offender and help him see the error of his ways. Popular methods of late 18th century shaming included "the whipping post, the pillory, stocks, branding, banishment, the dunking stool, and the use of the brank." All of these devices were used to demonstrate public shaming of the offender. Common reasons that would incorporate the use of shaming would be "blasphemy, adultery, failure to observe the Sabbath, and a general laziness." All of these punishments were used to help re-instill popular religious beliefs and bring back the good of a person into society. Lo and behold, shaming must have some positive attributes to it because it still exists in the present day. Instead of judges issuing jail/prison sentences, many offenders will receive some form of probation. Of course, this all depends on the seriousness of the crime. Judges tend to use probation on offenders in hopes of bringing them full circle from being a criminal to an integral part of society. Plus, a judge has more discretion in the use of probation as a form of corrections than with incarceration. Just as in any form of corrections, there exists four main goals that are to be achieved in some way, shape, or form. In order for the offender to feel the intended outcomes of shaming, he must experi...