Sentences based on public humiliation

[Tink]

Do you agree or disagree with Sentences based on public humiliation?
Shoplifters forced to march in front of the store wearing signs admitting what they did... etc.

[highlans]

Well if your system is any thing like over here they would only get of with a slaped wrist so YES, but then I bet the courts would say it is against there human rights.

[rivermom]

I think "bring it on!!". A little humility just might do the trick. As Highlans said though, "courts would say it's against human rights".

As everything I guess it depends on the situation.

For instance, a 5 year old child taking a piece of penny candy from the store shouldn't wear the sign. There are better ways to handle that situation.

However, a grown adult who just don't get it and feels stuff in the store for the taking is due him, or he wants to steal/turn around to sell for his drug habits then let him wear that sign w/ big bold words for all the world to see. The punishment should fit the crime for sure.

[AngieDoogles]

I'm just trying to picture what would be done to Brendon's step-mother. She's an evil woman who has done a number of terrible things. She's even been caught doing a few of them, for example, the time she stole $30,000 in checks and probably twice that in cash (you can't track cash so they aren't sure) from--here's the kicker--A CHURCH! Yup, she worked for a church, stole their "official stamp" for cashing checks and had them deposited into her personal bank account. She used tweezers to pull the money and checks from the donation drop boxes (the church is huge so that do that rather than an offering). She got 90 days in jail for that and they never found a single penny of the money. Before that, she lost her nursing license for stealing prescription drugs and selling them. More recently, she was in jail for 7 months for stealing $1000 from a local car company she worked for. The sad thing is, those are some of the nicer things she's done in her lifetime...

So what kind of humiliation punishment would she deserve???

[Mandy]

There would be a LOT less shoplifting done if thats the punishment they get, so yes, i would vote all for it.

[Janet]

I think most of us think it is okay. Even the ones who don't probably do and don't realize it. If they make their children go back and apologize for whatever...it's pretty much the same thing in my book. Maybe we should go back to courthouse lawn beatings....what humiliation!

[DianaB]

Maybe once they're humiliated it would put a stop to them doing it again and it would help to keep them out of jail. It could help with kids who shop lift. Who would want to stand in front of a mall with a sign that says "I'm a shop lifter!" when all of your friends are walking by? It just might work!!

[katepoet]

Hey Angie, that must be really hard on you both. I am so sorry to hear that she is like this. I wonder what made her so. I have been studying the US laws with some of my students and with some friends whose sons are struggling to stay out of jail. Our system doesn't seem to work very well much of the time. What do you think should change?

[AngieDoogles]

Originally Posted by katepoet

Hey Angie, that must be really hard on you both. I am so sorry to hear that she is like this. I wonder what made her so. I have been studying the US laws with some of my students and with some friends whose sons are struggling to stay out of jail. Our system doesn't seem to work very well much of the time. What do you think should change?

In her situation, I pretty much believe she was socialized to be this way. Brendon says her father is exactly the same. I honestly don't think the prison system could "help" her because she doesn't feel guilt, she doesn't care who she hurts, and she seems to only have one emotion--anger. How can that be cured or changed? I think in her case, prison is simply what she needs to keep her from hurting people, especially her son who still lives at home with her.

[katepoet]

Some people don't open themselves to change at all until they are forced to do so. such a sad way to live.

[judy]

Originally Posted by AngieDoogles

In her situation, I pretty much believe she was socialized to be this way. Brendon says her father is exactly the same. I honestly don't think the prison system could "help" her because she doesn't feel guilt, she doesn't care who she hurts, and she seems to only have one emotion--anger. How can that be cured or changed? I think in her case, prison is simply what she needs to keep her from hurting people, especially her son who still lives at home with her.

I've been watching a lot of Dr. Phil and it sounds like she has the "anger disease." Or, it might have been Keith Ablow's show.

It sounds like she needs meds, but probably won't take them. Probably your best plan would be to keep out of her way. Poor Brendon being raised with her around!
He certainly turned out fine though.

Oh, and I don't believe in public humiliation. Of course, in NYC, who would even notice someone walking around with a sign that they're a shoplifter. Even if we did notice, it's not something most New Yorkers would even process, much less care about.

[Tink]

I had a neighbor/co-worker who I have long since lost track of who's mother taught her and her siblings to shoplift. No WAY would she spend any money on them, so if they wanted something she told them they'd better take it and not get caught. She too was a very odd person (the mother, not daughter). She'd been married many times, stole from anyone unlucky enough to turn their back on her and never felt any of it was wrong.

My neighbor left home at 14 because she felt she would do better on her own. When I met her she was well into her 40's and while she wasn't nearly as bad as her mother... who I did eventually meet, she had some really warped ideas on how to live. At one point she was in court fighting the federal govenment because they were trying to kick her and her tent off federal land where she'd been living for several months. Another time she lived on a beach in her pick up truck and spent her last 5 dollars to buy a bottle of booze.

I got to know her when she married (her first marriage) a man 12 yrs her junior who I worked with on the local ambulance service and lived near. She was interesting, and if she liked you she didn't steal from you, but she did have a very warped sense of entitlment and refused to ever work full time.

So Angie, your MIL isn't alone, but it's hard to deal with people like that for sure.

[katepoet]

The people we know!! The stories we could tell...

I don't believe in shame as a general rule but I do think a very tiny tiny bit helps at a certain stage of child rearing - that it matters how others perceive you or that you are making choices about how you are perceived. I don't mean that how we are seen by others should define us but that we should act respectful of others and sometimes that means dressing differently or maintaining quiet, or other things that make it easier on those around us.

But I do think anti-social people have undiagnosed or untreated illnesses and that there is help for them.