Shaming as Punishment

Paper Summary:

The paper addresses Cesare Beccaria's school of thought on deterrence and other criminal theorists' ideas on the measure of deterrence brought about by public shame. The paper offers many examples of sentences and penalties specifically designed to create both shame and embarrassment, such as the case of a female shoplifter sentenced to wearing a sandwich board style sign that says "I am a thief: I stole from Wal-mart". The paper considers the arguments for and against this unconventional means of punishment and supports the investigation and further analysis of these methods.

From the Paper:

"There's no doubt about it. Americans are obsessed with crime and justice. The quest to explain criminality and the desire to see justice served dominates everything from our weekly top ten most watched television shows to our political debates. Concerns about crime rates and how to deal with those that commit the crimes are no longer reserved for the media nor debated only in political arenas but now extend into the most personal aspects of our everyday lives. Theories of the who, what, when, where, and why of crime find their way into our work places, our community school meetings and even our religious services. Recent decades have seen experts in sociology, psychology, and numerous other sciences venture in the arena of crime and punishment. They join the politicians, the statisticians, members of law enforcement, officers of the courts and the everyday American in the pursuit of defining who commits crimes, why they commit crime, how to prevent them from committing crime, and most intriguing of all, just what in the world to do with individuals once they have chosen to commit crime."

Sample of Sources Used:

• (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2007, from www.crimetheory.com: http://www.crimetheory.com/ClasPos/onc&p.htm
• About JohnTV.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 22, 2007, from JohnTV.com: http://www.johntv.com/about.html
• Arlen Egley, J. (n.d.). Shaming. Retrieved October 25, 2007, from umsl.edu: http://www.umsl.edu/~mpsac/forums/forum2/arlen.html
• Do crime-do time in Chicken suit. (2007, August 11). Retrieved October 26, 2007, from abcnews.go.com: http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=3467505&page=1
• Donovan, G. (2003, February 14). Vandals of Statue Sentenced. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from findarticles.com: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_15_39/ai_97997776/pg_1

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