Shame as Punishment
A group of teens participated in a prank that involved tossing a soft drink in the drive through window at the establishment employee. Then, they posted a video of the incident on YouTube. Interestingly enough, the victim at first thought the prank was personal, but then heard about the YouTube posting. The victim did some personal detective work and discovered the identity of the pranksters. Now, the perpetrators have been ordered to post an apology video on YouTube. Read the USA Today article . Also, see the apology video.
This isn’t the beginning of shame as punishment as noted in a 2004 USA Today article that describes shaming sentences as “… sometimes called Scarlet Letter punishments, after Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel in which an adulteress is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her clothes.”
We discussed this topic in a workshop not too long ago and there were folks on both sides of the fence as to whether shame was a good punishment or not. What do you think?
Filed under: Thinking... and
Michelle,
I remember sitting in a similar training, discussing this. Personally I think things like this need to be decided on a case by case basis. In this case, I think the punishment fit the crime, but I have to wonder how the victims feel? Would they just want this ordeal over with, did this make things worse for them? Tough call, but thanks for blogging about the topic and for sharing the apology.
Lori