Corporal Punishment: A Response To Bring Back Flog

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Hilary Phillips 30 June 2010 Corporal Punishment: A Response to Bring Back Flogging In the essay “Bring Back Flogging,” the Author Jeff Jacoby, argues that some forms of corporal punishment should be readopted into today’s society. He was largely assumptive throughout his writing; writing from an almost empirical perspective. I found Jacoby using the readers’ emotions to his benefit. In an attempt to persuade the reader, Jacoby made claims of inmates learning to become “professional” criminals while in prison and the amount of tax dollars spent per inmate each year. After reviewing Jacoby’s paper, I find myself thinking . . . in possibly the same way as Jacoby and asking, to what extent should we bring back corporal punishment. Assuming that young, petty lawbreakers may be deterred from braking laws, simply by introducing the possibility of a public flogging, has some flaws to it. Jacoby neglected to bring up, what I would call the perfect argument to this topic. People who already intentionally commit crimes in today’s American society are fully aware of the possible repercussions for their actions. Despite this knowledge they continue to commit crimes that could land them in jail. I could argue that even more crime could result in effect to fewer prisonable offences and more humane forms of corporal punishment. Think about this: You get in trouble for selling drugs . . . the Judge then sets forth an ultimatum; Stand in the town center and endure a public whipping, or report to jail for the next year. My hypothesis to this idea would be that most if not all criminals would choose to suffer a beating over being locked away in a jail cell. Therefore I believe more petty crimes would be committed, due to a lack of fear. A few days of pain can be far less detrimental than a long prison sentence. A reputable assumption Jacoby made was; Prison becomes a kind of

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