Summary
“At least in regard to cruelty, it’s not at all clear that the system of punishment that has evolved in the West is less barbaric than the grotesque practices of Islam” (5).
The piece by Stephen Chapman begins by explaining specific, barbaric methods of punishment that certain countries still use, like flogging, amputation, and stoning. The author shifts into explaining how criminals in the West are disciplined with …show more content…
The content in the author’s piece severely declined after those first three paragraphs. The rest of the piece contained opinions and statistics that were used to sway the readers to an inaccurate or bias stance. Chapman tried to use an example of an overcrowded jail and the fact that there were 211 stabbings in one year at a particular prison to argue that the prison system is not less barbaric than the practices of Islam (4). He would state opinions that were not backed by any statistics in the piece like, “But long prison terms do not rehabilitate either” (10). The ideas that the author suggested actually aggravated me so much that I had to write my opinions into the margins of the