Background Stephen Chapman was born in Brady, Texas and he grew up in Midland and Austin. He graduated from Harvard University with cum laude and worked for the New Republic. Chapman is currently on the staff of the Chicago Tribune where he writes a column that covers national and international affairs, and appears in some 60 papers across the country. He has also provided articles for Slate, The American Spectator, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and Reason. I already knew about some of the barbaric practices that occurred in certain countries during that time period, but this piece still succeeded in further increasing my knowledge about the topic.
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
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