The Importance Of Public Shaming

Public shaming has been around for thousands of years and has a been a tremendous part of human history. In The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne has committed adultery and is forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest for all of eternity. Public shaming, similar to what Hester was sentenced to, still happens today consequently making public shaming an alternative punishment. However, public shaming should not be apart of the judges repertoire as it affects the criminals way more than intended.
Having the government and legal system come up with the punishment is pushing the boundaries on the Eighth Amendment and privacy. In the constitution of the United States, the Eighth Amendment protects the threat of having cruel and unusual punishments. Public shaming is somewhat a loophole in the system because such are unusual punishments dealing with the crime. But if the judge feels that justice is being served with the punishment, then he has the right to administer it. Foremost, the punishments that the legal system comes up with can be considered unusual because they do not fall into the normal categories. With public shaming, the government and justice system invades the criminal’s privacy by forcing them to go public the the crime even if they do not want to do so. With jail, there is privacy from the public and to let the public know is up to the offender. But with public shaming, the offender is forced to go public. Thus, the invasion of privacy has taken place. …show more content…
Beginning in the early biblical times and all the way to the 21st century, public shaming has been an realistic way to punish criminals. In The Scarlet Letter, readers are given a first hand look at the dangers of public shaming. Public shaming is a mediocre and an unconstitutional way to punish criminals without knowing the full extent the punishment holds while manipulating the criminals as