Week 14 - On Crimes and Punishments

As I spoke about in class I found Beccaria's views on punishment to be particularly insightful. He seemed to feel that punishment, especially extreme forms such as physical or capital punishment, was not only unnecessary but pointless. Much like Foucault, he spoke of reforming the mind. This seems far more rational to my modern sensibility, seeing as this type of reform is far more prevalent in our society. In order to make a person truly change, you have to change their way of thinking. Small things can be stopped with physical deferments, which is why spanking persists as a common form of punishment, but is often only a temporary solution. Physical punishment just teaches someone to be smarter in the future, to commit the same crime better as to not get caught. However, to alter one's mind is far more permanent. To change someone's mind completely alters them as a person. It makes them, it successful, understand what they have done wrong, to understand the a weird of their dies as to prevent them from committing the crime in the future. Prisons try to do this, but often fail. Unfortunately although to alter ones mind to avoid future crimes would most likely prove infinitely more successful it is also far more difficult to achieve. Physical punishment is easy, simple and widely achievable. As with a great many things, the theory is far better than the practice.