Don't Spare the Rod: A Proposed Return to Public, Corporal Punishment of Convicts (From Criminal Courts for the 21st Century, P 411-429, 1999, Lisa Stolzenberg and Stewart J. D'Alessio, eds. -- See NCJ-186588)

• NCJ Number: 186602
• Author(s): Whitney S. Weideman
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice Hall (Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc)
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted by permission of the American Journal of Criminal Law, from vol. 23, (1996), pp. 651-673.

Annotation

This article proposes a return to public, corporal punishment of convicts.

Abstract

The article describes a model for a new way of dealing with crime and with criminals. The model makes retribution the fundamental reason for inflicting punishment. Once society has satisfied its need for vengeance, the new system will focus the stigma on the crime rather than the criminal and will allow convicts who have suffered the penalty for their actions to reenter society as productive members. The model uses public corporal punishment other than imprisonment for all noncapital crimes. The article describes corporal punishment as a reasonable, rational alternative to the systemic prison overcrowding and rampant recidivism that are part of the current approach to crime and criminals. The article considers whether corporal punishment is unconstitutional, procedural challenges to implementing a system using corporal punishment, shaming as an aspect of punishment, how and why the system would work, and the reduced social cost of corporal punishment. Appendixes, notes