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The Uses Of Public Shaming In The Present

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Recommended: The scarlet letter crime and punishment

Sean R. Dwyer
Ms. Hoefling
Honors Sophomore English
29 September 2014
The Uses of Public Shaming in the Present Only 4,000 people or one third of people drunk driving are arrested. The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the life story of the Adulteress Hester Prynne, and her daughter Pearl. In the story Hester is convicted of adultery publicly shamed for her crime, and is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom as punishment. The article “Concerns Raised on the Scarlet Letter for Drunk Drivers” written by Toni Locy debates the issue of the use a “scarlet letter” punishment for the crime of drunk driving. Through these two sources they show that public shaming is best way to get someone to change because it would discourage people from doing crimes to begin with, it would cause a decline in our prison populations, and people would more likely get caught the next time if the did another crime. …show more content…

This is shown in Hester Prynne’s punishment of wearing the scarlet letter which would make her easier to spot by the townspeople which would make them more watchful of her actions. This is also shown Toni Locy writing about the proposed “hardship” license which would allow people convicted of drunk driving to drive to work, but would also require a removable placard which allow the police to easily spot and stop a driver anytime (Locy 1). These would both help someone change because it would make them easily spotted for suspicion they could not commit crimes and get away with

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