Do You Support Public Humiliation For Criminal Punishment?

[Deadvolcanoes]

Last month, a judge ordered a woman to stand outside a bus stop for two days holding a sign stating "Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." Her crime? You guessed it. Driving on a sidewalk to avoid a school bus stop.

http://www.travelerstoday.com/articl...ng-driving.htm

Public humiliation as a form of punishment is fairly rare. Some judges have been known to force convicted shoplifters to hold signs outside the stores they tried to steal from stating their crime.

Earlier this month, a principle in Arizona gave two boys the option of suspension or holding hands in public after they were caught fighting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile...n_2218698.html

Some people believe public humiliation is a cost effective way of punishing relatively minor crimes. Other people belive it promotes bullying and should be considered "cruel and unusual punishment."

How do you feel?

[Soisoisoi]

They should do it more often. People care more about the way they look to others than they do about paying a fine.

[salamala]

Well we have a "woman" that doesn't want to wait for a school bus to load some kids on - so it drives up onto the sidewalk and someones yard to go around the bus. What do you think should happen to it? I'm down for whatever - jail time, community service, or even this. As long as it's punished for it's crimes. In the pics I saw, it didn't look very happy or cared that it was in court. The irony is it probably thinks it got away with something because this punishment hardly effects someone willing to do this infront of so many people and children.

[Tonyman64]

First: I wish people starting threads on divisive topics would open with relatively neutral posts more often.
Second: I don't see how public humiliation wouldn't fall under "cruel and unusual punishment."

[Deleted]

I really don't know but I'm sure I'd rather have someone do community work instead of wasting their time waving or holding a sign up saying that they did X or Z...

[Djuntas]

If it means the system moves faster (People getting sentences faster), and less tax money spended on prison, fine by me.

We're not talking murder-convicted people here

[Deadvolcanoes]

They should do it more often. People care more about the way they look to others than they do about paying a fine.

This is a good point, especially with the advent of social media. Imagine a judge ordering you to make your Facebook status "I got arrested for drinking and driving."

[drwelfare]

Heinlein had the right methods in Starship Troopers.

Look at things like sex offender registry which in most places if for life even if the actual sentence was for a year, it has public humiliation and permanent restrictions on the ability to live ones life.

What happens when public humiliation is taken too far and someone kills themselves or others over it.

[jaykaywhy]

In the military, whenever someone was caught getting a DUI or speeding ticket on base, their command could discretionarily have them stand near the front gate, in full dress uniform, with a sign that says "I'm a turd because I speed/drink and drive."

It's an amazing general deterrent to everybody else. I think the best thing to do is give the person a fair option of which punishment they'd prefer, i.e. give the lady a $300 ticket, or whatever the fine is, or stand and do the sign thing. Obviously, don't make it so one-sided that she'll definitely pick one over the other, but let them decide.

Personally, I don't see it as cruel and unusual punishment. Not everything that's not a fine or jail time falls under that category.

[Deleted]

I really don't know but I'm sure I'd rather have someone do community work instead of wasting their time waving or holding a sign up saying that they did X or Z...

This.

There's really nothing productive about this but psychological. If you can, mix community service and humiliation if you want a good punishment, but otherwise it feels like a waste of time.

[Deleted]

This is a good point, especially with the advent of social media. Imagine a judge ordering you to make your Facebook status "I got arrested for drinking and driving."

I hardly believe that would be a worthy punishment if you did something like that woman did with the whole bus thing.

Not everyone cares about FB, so that's kinda pointless.

[Letmesleep]

Eh, it depends. I DON'T think public humiliation is a good punishment for minors because their peers probably won't ever let it go and it might turn into a bullying situation. For adults I think it's good to be knocked down a few pegs when you do something incredibly stupid. Public shaming shouldn't go too far though; I don't think we should force people to do something obscene/stand around naked/etc. Holding a sign that tells random people you did something dumb for an afternoon? I think it's adequate for a few minor crimes. Most people have the emotional capacity to be humbled without being ruined, but the judge should take a person's temperament and mental stability into account before handing out such a sentence.

[Soisoisoi]

This is a good point, especially with the advent of social media. Imagine a judge ordering you to make your Facebook status "I got arrested for drinking and driving."

Adding onto what you put, because no doubt someone would end up liking that status and think it's cool, they should put that they could have killed someone or something too.

[Confucius]

are those punishments even legal?

[ovm33]

I Chose yes... But...

In some cases it makes sense, in others it does not. In both the cases you linked I can't really see it as effective, however, I can imagine scenarios where it would be.

[Deleted]

Adding onto what you put, because no doubt someone would end up liking that status and think it's cool, they should put that they could have killed someone or something too.

What? No... How is that a punishment? That's the most stupid punishment can ever have, everyone that sees that will think the person, that posted that status, is trolling, therefore, nullifying the whole humiliation purpose.

Even so, like I said, I still think that posting things like this on FB is rather pointless.

(If you were being sarcastic, I didn't catch that. :b)

[AeneasBK]

I don't think we should be humiliating youngsters (16 or below) as it can lead to bigger issues developing, and whether or not people should or shouldn't be traumatised by this (or whether we should care if they are being punished) should be irrelevant, theres no point in shooting society in the foot about it.

Grown men and women though? I daresay its probably very effective

[Deleted]

That should be amusing. People behaving like monkeys, and throwing tomatoes. Would prove Darwin's point.

[Austilias]

We live in a society that flinches at the very thought of punishment and treats the criminals as even more of a victim than the actual victim; I wouldn't get your hopes up.

[Deadvolcanoes]

Most people have the emotional capacity to be humbled without being ruined.

Definitely this. I would say that I support public humiliation up to a point, though you could probably say that about everything. There certainly could be a risk that it backfires (think the UK nurse that just killed herself, possibly from humiliation), but if a proper balance is found, I think it could be effective.