Punishment

Today I would like to share my thoughts on the purpose of punishment. In particular, I have thought about over the years, I have concluded that my views are almost certainly a minority view.  I am interested in how other people think about the same topic.

What is the purpose of punishment?   I can come up with two compelling reasons that I do not think are controversial:

1)  To correct behavior
2)  To deter others

Some people argue that punishment has dubious value even for the purpose of correcting behavior (as in, there may be better ways),  but I think it would hard to maintain that it does not modify behavior.  After all, if reaching for a cookie gets your hand slapped, you won't reach cookies ( save when no one is looking perhaps).

The deter others also seems obvious and noncontroversial.  After all, I don't need to get my hand slapped if I have seen my friend's hand get slapped.

Is there another purpose?  I think most people believe there is. Let me take a quick shot sat it

3) Justice

I think the idea here is that there is some kind of cosmic score keeping and in the end, things need to be balanced.  If someone does wrong to others, they "need" to experience some kind of suffering in order to redress "the balance".  And if society cannot redress the balance, then God (or Karma, etc) will ultimately.

This is consistent with how our culture thinks about punishment and it is very much woven into our cultural view on crime and punishment.  The problem is, I just don't buy it.

Why not?  Well, I don't assume that just because something is woven into our culture, that it gets special privilege as to its merit.  There may be good reasons why something becomes a cultural norm, we should keep that in mind (the old ways often have more wisdom in them that isn't written on the package).  But simply doesn't mean cultural norms should never be questioned.

To help bring out the discussion, let me propose a thought experiment.  Let's just take a guy most agree deserved severe punishment.  Hitler (you can easily modify this for the rapist monster Castro).  Let's suppose you have a time machine (may or may not be shaped like a blue box) and you can transport right the moment before Hitler killed himself in 1945.  Furthermore, you have certain technology available that allows you the following options (but only these options):

a)  Let history play out  (God or Cosmic justice will punish his soul)

b) Save him and turn him over to Allies so that he can be put on trial and punished publicly for his crimes

c) Take him away, place his mind into the body of all 20 million of his victims and let him experience each and every death and suffering. Drop him off on planet Vulcan when done. (history written the same as a)

d) Endowing him with empathy and compassion so that he realizes the magnitudes of his crimes.  Then, erase his memory and drop him off on planet Vulcan (history written the same as a).

Which one appealed to you?   I think that c appeals to our gut instincts.   Likely many will think about it and decide on a, either not wanting to play God or being familiar with what typically happens in time travel Sci Fi.  I think b has little or no emotional appeal (am I wrong?).  What about d?  That would be my choice.  What?  What about justice?  To be honest, I really don't care.  I just don't see why further suffering accomplishes anything.  


I could go on on this topic, but I hoping to get some feedback.  What do you think?