What is the best way to punish people? For centuries, humans have sought out for methods to reprimand wrongdoers. We, as a species, have allowed punishment to evolve along with us. From corporal punishment, or flogging as many may call it, to incarceration, humans have searched for the most effective technique to punish people. As time elapsed, imprisonment has become our staple for all crimes and transgressions. With this in mind, many writers have contended that we revisit corporal punishment. These authors include Peter Moskos and Jeff Jacoby. In their works, they both argue for the reintroduction of corporal punishment, i.e. flogging, in society. Within the contents of Peter Moskos’ book, In Defense of Flogging, the author proposes an alternative …show more content…
Likewise, Jeff Jacoby in his article, “Bring Back Flogging,” suggests that we “readopt” the Puritan’s system of punishment, flogging, and utilize it as an alternative to incarceration. Along with this, he argues that our current penal system, imprisonment, does not produce suitable outcomes. In a nutshell, after thorough analysis of their compositions, the case for flogging as presented by Moskos and Jacoby is unpersuasive.
At the outset, the contention for the reimplementation of flogging proves to be unconvincing. This is so for the reason that the inferences presented by Moskos and Jacoby are unsound. In Peter Moskos’ book, In Defense of Flogging, he makes a titanic assumption stating that: “Prison’s don’t work” (Moskos). This inference can be viewed as unsubstantiated. Where is Moskos obtaining the facts to make this postulation? Truth be told, Moskos does not provide any evidence to
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Owing to their illogical inferences and inconsistent lines of justification, one can realize this weakness in Moskos’ and Jacoby’s case for the re-adoption of flogging. However, Moskos did draw attention to a valid point in his book, In Defense of Flogging, as he expresses: “Perhaps there is another way—neither incarceration nor flogging—that punishes the guilty, provides the convicted with a halfway decent chance of a future, expresses society’s disapproval, and satisfies a victim’s sense of justice.” This concept that Moskos calls discussion to is worthy of note. However, the substitute that he presents, “flog and release,” is far from logical. Besides, as an alternative to endeavoring to castigate crimes, what we really ought to be doing is struggling to prevent crime. In relation, As the Dutch Renaissance philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus, once said, “Prevention is better than cure.” This notion reigns true in the case for a solution to the preclusion of crime in today’s society. Notwithstanding, this is a topic for another
Every civilized society makes laws that protect its values, and the society expects every single citizen to obey these laws. Whenever a citizen of a certain society breaks one of these laws, the rulers of the society dish out punishments they dim fit for the kind of crime committed. With this kind of justice system in place, criminals are either locked up in prison cells, whipped, or exiled from the society. In the essay, “Bring Back Flogging”, columnist Jeff Jacoby argues that flogging is much more superior to imprisonment and should be brought back as a method of punishing crime offenders like the Puritans did in the past. He is convinced that the shame associated with flogging would prevent offenders from going into crime professionally. Jacoby believes that whipping criminals has more educational value compared to locking them up in cells and that it saves a lot of money. Throughout the essay Jacoby attempts to build ethos even though it fell apart due to misconceptions. He relied mostly on the use of pathos by appealing to his reader’s emotions and using this as a base ground for his logos.
In George Orwell’s essay, “A Hanging,” and Michael Lake’s article, “Michael Lake Describes What The Executioner Actually Faces,” a hardened truth about capital punishment is exposed through influence drawn from both authors’ firsthand encounters with government- supported execution. After witnessing the execution of Walter James Bolton, Lake describes leaving with a lingering, “sense of loss and corruption that [he has] never quite shed” (Lake. Paragraph 16). Lake’s use of this line as a conclusion to his article solidifies the article’s tone regarding the mental turmoil that capital execution can have on those involved. Likewise, Orwell describes a disturbed state of mind present even in the moments leading up to the execution, where the thought, “oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise!” crossed his mind (Orwell.
Randa, Laura E. “Society’s Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty.” (1997). Rpt.in History of the Death Penalty. Ed. Michael H. Reggio. University Press of America, Inc., 1997. 1-6 Print.
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 ...
This makes his argument more credible and allows the reader to trust what he’s saying. When quoting a statement given by the Singapore government, Reyes said “[the] statement noted that in the past five years, fourteen young men aged 18 to 21, twelve of whom were Singaporean, had been sentenced to caning for vandalism” (Reyes 182). This gives a credible example of punishment that can be proven. Reyes then goes on to state, “Preventive detention laws allow authorities to lock up suspected criminals without trial.
Jacoby does not provide any backing for this warrant and gives no evidence of corporal punishment decreasing crime in other countries. Instead, he just assumes that the experience of immense physical pain would decrease crime. Jacoby’s failure to back up his warrant of physical pain being a deterrent of crime causes the reader to dismiss his argument of using corporal punishment as an alternative to imprisonment. Additionally, he never defines the term “flogging.” This lack of specification is confusing for the reader as it is unclear what Jacoby is actually talking about.
In “The Death Penalty” (1985), David Bruck argues that the death penalty is injustice and that it is fury rather than justice that compels others to “demand that murderers be punished” by death. Bruck relies on varies cases of death row inmates to persuade the readers against capital punishment. His purpose is to persuade readers against the death penalty in order for them to realize that it is inhuman, irrational, and that “neither justice nor self-preservation demands that we kill men whom we have already imprisoned.” Bruck does not employ an array of devices but he does employ some such as juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, and appeals to strengthen his argument. He establishes an informal relationship with his audience of supporters of capital punishment such as Mayor Koch.
During seventeenth century flogging was a popular punishment for convicted people among Boston's Puritans. Fortunately, those times have passed and brutal and inhuman flogging was replaced by imprisonment. Columnist for the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby in his essay "Bring back flogging" asserts that flogging is superior to imprisonment and advocates flogging as an excellent means of punishment. He is convinced that flogging of offenders after their first conviction can prevent them from going into professional criminal career and has more educational value than imprisonment. He also argues that being imprisoned is more dangerous than being whipped, because the risk of being beaten, raped, or murdered in prison is terrifying high. Unfortunately, Jeff Jacoby made some faulty assumptions and his article "Bring back flogging" is filled with misconceptions.
When the our criminal justice system introduced punishments, sanctions for criminal behavior tended to be public events which were designed to shame the person and deter others. These punishments included ducking stool, the pillory, whipping, branding and the stocks. As years progressed, these punishments have slowly started disappear from our penology and capital punishment was introduced. According to Kronenwetter,
In Western cultures imprisonment is the universal method of punishing criminals (Chapman 571). According to criminologists locking up criminals may not even be an effective form of punishment. First, the prison sentences do not serve as an example to deter future criminals, which is indicated, in the increased rates of criminal behavior over the years. Secondly, prisons may protect the average citizen from crimes but the violence is then diverted to prison workers and other inmates. Finally, inmates are locked together which impedes their rehabilitation and exposes them too more criminal
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
The origin of the word prison comes from the Latin word seize. It is fair to say that the traditional use of prison corresponds well with the origin of the word as traditionally prison was a place for holding people whilst they were awaiting trial. Now, centuries on, prisons today are used as a very popular, and severe form of punishment offered to those that have been convicted. With the exception, however, of the death penalty and corporal punishment that still takes place in some countries. Being that prison is a very popular form of punishment used in today's society to tackle crime and punish offenders, this essay will then examine whether prison works, by drawing on relevant sociological factors.
“I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions--poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed--which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.”
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfarism and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years.
According to David Garland, punishment is a legal process where violators of the criminal law are condemned and sanctioned with specified legal categories and procedures (Garland, 1990). There are different forms and types of punishment administered for various reasons and can either be a temporary or lifelong type of punishment. Punishment can be originated as a cause from parents or teachers with misbehaving children, in the workplace or from the judicial system in which crimes are committed against the law. The main aim of punishment is to demonstrate to the public, the victim and the offender that justice is to be done, to reduce criminal activities and to deter people from wanting to commit any form of crime against the law. In other words it is a tool used to eliminate the bad in society or to deter people from committing criminal activities.