Posted: September 7th, 2022

Punishments are implemented for different reasons

Abstract
Punishments are implemented for different reasons, most significantly, to enforce or encourage proper behavior as defined by a family or society. Criminals are punished judicially by corporal punishment, fines, or custodial sentences such as prison terms. However, prisoners risk additional punishments for breaks of internal rules. The Newman proposal explains the need to give lawbreakers the deserved punishment based on the crime they commit. Further, Newman interprets pain as the prime element of punishment, which is necessary to serve justice. Also, he assumes in his analysis that physical pain is measurable quite precisely and that it can be controlled through scientific and technological administration. The proposal by Newman seeks to distinguish crimes from criminals and proposes chronic pain to heinous and repeat offenders, including physical pain and imprisonment. However, different forms of punishment depend on the jurisdiction of the rule of law that governs the specific social group and the degree of crime committed. Most governments globally have their penal codes that mainly dictate sending an offender to prison, an act that quests rather debar punishment than uphold it. Thus, this project discusses author Newman Graem’s proposal of electric shocks as punishment for offenders.
Keywords: Newman’s proposal, physical pain, punishment, penal codes, electric shocks

Criminal Justice
Punishment is the application of a penalty by an authority on an individual for a misdeed. Punishment is meant to defend social norms, protect society from harm, maintain the rule of law and enforce social conformity but mainly modify the individual’s behavior. There are different forms of punishments depending on the jurisdiction of the rule of law that governs the specific social group and the degree of crime committed (Berk, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). For instance, punishment can be implicated informally following a particular social setting or formally under the systemic rule of law. This essay focuses on electrical shocks as a means of corporal punishment, physical pain implicated in an individual.
Modern science has not done significant research on the effects of corporal punishment on the modification of behavior. It has majorly focused on the effects of rewards. Society has implicated the idea of corporal punishment negatively. Human rights activists have so much condemned the act of corporal punishment while psychologists have come up with explanations all in the name of trying to bring an end to this form of punishment. One question that remains in their mind is whether it was suitable for a man to subject another to pain and suffering while upholding this under the principle of justice.
However, the question can be answered by penal law in Christianity or the simple law of physics, which states that action is equal to reaction, and they both move in opposite directions. This law seems to govern all forms of nature, including men and seems to uphold punishment as an effective means of guarding society against the worst of men. Most governments globally have their penal codes that mainly dictate sending an offender to prison, an act that quests rather debar punishment than uphold it. Besides, introducing imprisonment as a substitute for other forms of corporal punishment has negatively affected its finances. Consequently, the burden is passed on to citizens through taxes and has also affected offenders by shunning them from opportunities and profitable economic activities.
Moreover, law enforcers and most people in society agree that corporal punishment should be reinstated. Punishing offenders will prevent other men from committing similar offenses. The pain felt hurts the body and is inclined to the soul that discredits the offense committed. There are two forms of pain; acute pain, short-timed, less severe physical pain, and chronic pain, which is long-term physical pain. It can be affected by using various ways, but the most favorable, suitable, and fair of all is the use of electric shock. The administrators can control the intensity and timing of the shock to match the degree of the crime committed. It also saves the government on finances and solves overcrowding in prisons.
Additionally, these two forms of pain raise questions; which offenders should face acute pain and which ones for chronic pain. The analogy necessitated a reform proposal to be adopted. The proposal by Newman seeks to distinguish crimes from criminals and proposes chronic pain to heinous and repeat offenders, including physical pain and imprisonment. At the same time, minor offenses should have acute pain imposed on them. It is, however, essential to differentiate corporal punishment from torture since the latter is unlawful and a gross violation of human rights. Thus, corporal punishment cannot be termed torture since it does not cause long-term damages to the body.
In the 18th century, the U.S and Great Britain had incorporated corporal punishment in the act of their crime. The United States abolished it later following an act of congress, but Britain still upheld it. A good example is Maryland which saw a dramatic drop in domestic violence cases following the introduction of the whip in 1882. Cases of domestic violence had been on the rise, prompting the authorities to introduce the whip. Implementation of laws saw a drop of more than 50% in a year, and the cases eventually dwindled (Bach, 2017). The changes show how men dread the whip. It brings much degradation to a convict in society when he is publicly flogged and physical pain compared to imprisonment.
Besides, while still upholding the idea of imprisonment, it is essential to look at the results of both. Therefore, Offenders with petty crimes should not be locked with repeat or hardcore criminals for lack of bail. The electric shock again proves to be the best way of punishing such crimes. Technicians can adjust these shocks to implicate pain on an offender without permanently damaging their body. Alternatives like probation would be ineffective, especially to the offended groups and individuals, and would do nothing to show justice has been served. Bails would do little in preventing the repetition of offenses, but the pain would do as much.
Besides, pain communicates the nature of the misdeed to the offender, while prison only serves to show the seriousness of crimes committed (Hyatt, 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service. Crimes that cause little harm to the offended should be met with acute pain. In contrast, serious crimes should be met with the same degree of punishment and should have long-term repercussions like pain and imprisonment to give the offender the same pain and suffering they caused the victim.
There have been many oppositions to corporal punishment in recent years with the rise of human civilization and modernization (Mazur, 2013). Some argue it is too painful, while others merely object it by the fact that it causes bodily harm to the offender. These arguments raise two issues; that the punishment’s severity and the punishment method. It is important to note that it is misleading to only focus on the extremity when trying to object or justify corporal punishment. For example, a situation when one is electrically shocked, causing them grievous or permanent bodily harm. By doing this, we would be ignoring the question of whether less severe corporal punishment can be justified. The focus should also be put on which offenses are punishable. For example, the Saudi Arabia government once sentenced a blogger to 1,000 lashes of the whip for being a human rights activist in his blog (Hamilton, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). This punishment was severe and unlawful since it violated the blogger’s right to expression.
Additionally, the absolute advantage of corporal punishment over-incarceration is the aspect of time and financial impact. Incarceration is an expensive affair that costs an estimated $ 30,000 per year for a single inmate. This fiscal burden on the government is passed on to citizens through taxes. It is also time-consuming since every inmate has to serve their sentence. Corporal punishment is cheap and takes less time. As much as cost is not a priority in determining the punishment method, the capital involved could be used for better projects; hence, it is an essential factor to consider.
However, prison is not enough to bring out the desired results since most of these correctional lack plan and purpose. It is destructive and degrades our values since it does not reflect our accurate degree of civilization. There is a need for a well-outlined legal framework that will guide us in deciding which cases require incarceration and which ones can be sentenced for corporal punishment to prevent prisons from being overwhelmed and help in meeting fair punishment to the incarcerated ones and rehabilitate them to future good citizens. Punishment is aimed at reducing the crime rate, but our prisons have not achieved that today. They have lacked target in crime control by relying on the incapacitation theory, which states that criminals should be incarcerated for crimes they would have committed in the future.
Besides, there have been numerous arguments globally on this topic. The vast majority are the ones who object to corporal punishment as compared to imprisonment or incarceration. However, their objections are negligible since they are one-sided and focus on the extremes. For example, those who term corporal punishment as violent and vicious fail to realize that prisons are much worse in this. Once an offender is incarcerated, they are exposed to such vices aforementioned in reality; corporal punishment is carried out per the rule of law. Public opinion has played a significant role in this. If only we were to stand with the altruistic position that the duty to educate the naïve and reform the ferocious relies on the right to punish.
In conclusion, our criminal justice system needs to be reviewed. Theory needs to be compared with experience, perceptions with facts. In reducing overcrowding and making prisons effective in the administration of just punishment and rehabilitation, there is a need to re-introduce corporal punishment in our criminal justice. It has proved to be effective in serving justice to the offended. It is essential to be open-minded in the process not to miss any mark or go overboard in reinstating the same. There are laws and statutes as well as amendments that can offer proper guidance in achieving this.

References
Mazur, J. E. (2013). Learning and behavior (7th ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press
Berk, R. A. 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment onlineb. A Primer on Fairness in Criminal Justice Risk Assessments. The Criminologist, 4
Hyatt, J. 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service. Machine Learning Forecasts of Risk to Inform Sentencing Decisions. The Federal Sentencing Reporter 27(4):222–228.
Hamilton, M. 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online. Risk-needs Assessment: Constitutional and Ethical Challenges. American Criminal Law Review 52(2):231–292.
Bach, D. R. (2017). The cognitive architecture of anxiety-like behavioral inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43(1), 18-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000282

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