Crimes of punishment: America's culture of violence

Introduction and chapter overview 1. A psychoanalytic perspective on the effects of punishment Emotional effects of punishment Anger, hatred, rage, and revenge Emotional numbness and the loss of empathy and compassion How the loss of empathy contributes to violence Feelings of shame impair empathic responses to others The effects of punishment on Adolf Hitlerthe inculcation of shame Punishment is shaming The folly of shaming sanctions Does the shame of punishment inhibit wrongdoing? How Allen Wheelis became a "psychological slave" The childhood roots of paranoid psychopathology 2. Punishment and the cycle of violence Television evokes violence Vicious cycles of violence in prisons Intergenerational transmission of emotional and physical abuse The intergenerational transmission of an attitude of contempt George's legacy to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren Internalized punishment and the cycle of violence 3. The effects of corporal punishment on children Scientific studies on effects of corporal punishment Corporal punishment and physical abuse Depression and suicide Assaults on siblings and spouses Violent crime, property crime, and delinquent acts Corporal punishment and the development of conscience Five prospective studies on the effects of corporal punishment Corporal punishment tends to retard cognitive development Conclusions from scientific studies Nonviolent modes of discipline Wanteda national ban on corporal punishment 4. Punishments and perils in today's prisons Care of the mentally ill in America's prisons Suicide in jails and prisons Mass incarceration and overcrowding The war on drugs and mass incarceration Prisons are dangerous places Gang fights The violence of prison rape Supermaximum-custody prisons Invisible post-incarceration punishments

5. Prisons are "factories of crime" "A shocking level of failure" "Imprisonment is an expensive way of making bad people worse" The "futility of past punitive measures" "This is a crime factory" The "failure of today's correctional system" Discussion 6. The scapegoating of prisoners Scapegoatinga type of projective identification 7. The process of criminalization of prisonersa relational perspective Prison relationships foster the formation of a negative identity and/or negative group identity Psychosocial processes of prisonization and criminalization Shame inculcation in prisonsthe total degradation ceremony Concluding comments 8. The limitations of prison reform Prison reforms on Norfolk Island by Captain Maconochie, 1840 Prison reforms of Elizabeth Farnham in New York State, 1844 Prison reforms of Howard Bilding Gill in Massachusetts, 1933 Prison reforms of Thomas Mott Osborne in New York State, 1913 Prison reforms of Thomas Murton in Arkansas, 1967 Prison reforms of William R. Conte, M.D., in Washington State, 1966 Prison reform and mental hospital reforma comparison Custody and punishment versus psychiatry and treatment Punishment and rehabilitation are fundamentally incompatibleit's not possible to reform a person and at the same time punish him 9. Arguments for and against the death penalty The moral argument for abolition Sister Helen Prejeanspiritual advisor to a condemned murderer General deterrence and the death penalty Retributionthe irrational doctrine of immaculate execution Retribution The new abolitionismthe argument of fairness The education of Governor Ryan Forgiveness or revenge? Brutalization theory The cost argument Conclusion

10. Is there a moral justification for punishment? Incapacitation General deterrence Deterrence and the fear of punishment Retribution The moral education theory of punishment Rehabilitation False ideas and misconceptions about the corporal punishment of children False idea 1 spanking is more effective than other types of discipline False idea 2spanking is required as a last resort False idea 3spanking causes no harm False idea 4only one or two spankings won't be harmful False idea 5parents can't stop spanking without training False idea 6children who are not spanked become spoiled or run wild False idea 7parents spank rarely or only for serious misbehavior False idea 8parents stop spanking when the child becomes an adolescent False idea 9parents who don't spank verbally abuse their children False idea 10it is unrealistic to expect parents to stop spanking False idea 11Jesus Christ wants his followers to spank their children when they misbehave Summary 11. Does incarceration deter the offender from committing further crimes? Theories of deterrence The defiance responsethe role of the processes of criminalization, prisonization, and the formation of a negative identity and/or negative group identity Effects of incarceration Loss of freedom and defiance Conclusions 12. Notes on relationships between religion, nonviolence, and punishment "Death is no big deal" On "saving souls" through the exploitation of the fear of divine punishment The apocalyptic impulse America's most popular religionthe myth of redemptive violence How the myth of redemptive violence is internalized by children

13. Why incarcerate women? Women in penal institutions Medical and psychiatric treatment in women's prisons Do women offenders need to be in prison? 14. Emotional abuse Nonverbal communication Covert and explicit emotional abuse Gaslighting Case vignette of gaslighting Gaslighting and interpretations of distortions The double whammya form of covert emotional violence Case vignette of the double whammy Metacommunications The idealization of power over people Effects of emotional violence Guilt and shame as effects of emotional abuse The collective denial of emotional violence Conclusion 15. Social systems of domination and punishment Seven key characteristics of social systems of domination and punishment Concluding comments 16. The sociopathology of the prison system Hate the system, not the person The prison-industrial complex Racism in rural prisons The slavery system and the prison systemsome comparisons Conclusion 17. Crimes of the poor and crimes of the richa comparison The unfairness of the criminal justice system Laws are made for the rich in order to dominate the poor Many large corporations are antisocial systems of domination Many large corporations are antisocial institutions Corporate irresponsibilitya case report Characteristics of APDsummary Crimes of the poor and crimes of the richa comparison Public awareness of the individual versus corporate crimes

18. A nonviolent approach to communicating and relating to others

Nonviolence as a way of life

Nonverbal communication

understanding and expressing emotions

Empathy and compassion

Case vignette

Nonviolent responses to the violence of emotional abuse

Clinical vignette

Two nonviolent strategies

Vignette

The power of nonviolent approaches for preventing violence

Vignette

19. On the effectiveness of nonviolent approaches in groups

Nonviolence versus the myth of redemptive violence

20. Restorative justice

a new form of nonpunitive justice

Social injustice

How restorative justice works

Hope for the future of restorative justice approaches

Concluding remarks

21. Domestic abuse

a comparison between the retributive justice and restorative justice approaches

Mandatory arrest and prosecution

Restorative justice approaches to domestic violence

Empowering women in restorative justice approaches

22. Restorative justice and retributive justice

a comparison

Retribution and revenge

Restitution or retribution?

The healing power of forgiveness

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa

Amy Biehl

a case vignette on the healing power of forgiveness

Who helps the victims of crime?

All power to the state

Who is the victim

the state or the individual who is harmed?

Punishment and pain

Does pain repay the offender's moral debt?

The Victim Offender Reconciliation Program

Japan's effective two-track judicial system

The differences between retributive justice and restorative justice

Concluding comments

Bibliography

Index.