The Scarlet Letters
From CNN.com:
SALISBURY, Maryland (AP) -- A woman who stole $4.52 worth of fuel was ordered to stand outside the gas station Friday wearing a sandwich board sign that declared: "I was caught stealing gas."
Is it alright for a judge to order public humiliation as a punishment for a crime? If so, where does it stop? This seems to me to be a bad idea, reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter.
Public humiliation often doesn't "teach them a lesson." It instead builds up resentment and anger. Sometimes it does work, though.
My sentence: make her pay $425.00, one hundred times the amount that she stole. I'd make this a federal law. If you steal gas, you pay 100 times the going rate, which is 190 dollars a gallon right now. The potential benefits would no longer outweigh the disadvantages.
SALISBURY, Maryland (AP) -- A woman who stole $4.52 worth of fuel was ordered to stand outside the gas station Friday wearing a sandwich board sign that declared: "I was caught stealing gas."
Is it alright for a judge to order public humiliation as a punishment for a crime? If so, where does it stop? This seems to me to be a bad idea, reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter.
Public humiliation often doesn't "teach them a lesson." It instead builds up resentment and anger. Sometimes it does work, though.
My sentence: make her pay $425.00, one hundred times the amount that she stole. I'd make this a federal law. If you steal gas, you pay 100 times the going rate, which is 190 dollars a gallon right now. The potential benefits would no longer outweigh the disadvantages.
posted by Joshua Frear at 9:13 AM
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