Topic > Public Shaming as an Appropriate Form of Criminal Punishment

In the novel Feet of Clay (1996), the City Watch attempt to solve the murders of the priest and the baker and the poisoning of the patrician Lord Vetinari. The crimes are supposedly committed by the golem "king", Meshuggah, created to bring peace to the world and treat everyone equally. These murders were an example of crime: a crime committed secretly and subtly to avoid suspicion about the criminal's identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Pratchett's statement about punishment for crimes needing to be made public may not seem out of touch today. This is because making the punishment public means making a crime transparent and exposing it to everyone. Making these punishments transparent ensures that the criminal is responsible or at least perceived as having paid the price. However, this raises three questions: why should punishment be made public, to what extent should it be made public, and what are the possible implications for both situations? The current reality is that most governments do not publicly punish criminals for their actions. However, public punishment was a common punishment from the beginning of European colonization until the 19th century, but fell out of use in the 20th century. However, although public shaming was a common punishment in the 19th century, in some places it has been a form of punishment since ancient times and has been very effective in many situations. This is because people don't like to be humiliated because they might be looked down upon when they are in public. For example, a thief losing the hand he stole with during a public execution was an effective form of punishment that dissuaded both the offender and people watching from committing that crime again as no one would want to end up in the situation as a criminal . This helped to instill fear in the public and therefore serve its purpose, which is to ensure that other people do not want to end up like the perpetrator or be humiliated in public. This also makes criminals more aware of the consequences of their crimes through which it induces guilt (through shame) in criminals pushing them to reform. This is because the criminal announcing to the world what he has done is a serious blow to his pride and reputation since no one likes to be looked down upon and judged by others. People are afraid of judgment and criticism when they are put in a bad light. It also feels guilty and shameful when people know what you did wrong and judge you for it. It affects a criminal mentally to dissuade them from committing the same action again because they don't want to give people another reason to despise them. Furthermore, suffering a serious blow to one's pride is not something that is taken lightly by most people. According to the legalmatch law blog, “The principle behind public humiliation as punishment is simple. People do not like to be humiliated, and the prospect of facing public humiliation could perhaps act as a stronger deterrent than more “severe” punishments such as imprisonment or probation. And enforcing a court order to stay out of a business with a sign for a few weeks is probably much cheaper for the state than keeping a person in prison or on probation for months or years.” Therefore, public punishment is carried out to make criminals feel generally belittled, worthless, leading to remorse and regret, and mostly wanting to make reparations, dissuading the perpetrator from committing a crime again..