Corporal Punishment and Worse

Dukore, Bernard F.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62746-5_9

Bernard F. Dukore⁴

Part of the book series: Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries ((BSC))

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Abstract

“Flogging” treats this punishment, which was common in homes, schools, the armed forces, and prisons. Shaw loathed its cruelty and the moral debasement of those who clamor for its infliction. Some plays refer to it, but his views appear mainly in non-dramatic works. “Laws, Trials, and Imprisonment” demonstrates our inequality before the law. Unlike laborers, the rich can afford lawyers to search for exonerating evidence and plead before appellate courts. The law, Shaw shows, is an agent of the l.c. (government). The subsection examines The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet and Saint Joan, plus Shaw’s non-dramatic writings on judges and juries; and it analyzes imprisonment, including the treatment of suffragettes and the effectiveness of the penal system’s goals: punishment, deterrence, and reform. Shaw favors “Capital Punishment,” common in his lifetime, since society has the right to protect itself from irredeemably wicked people who might continue to kill and since it does not waste society’s financial resources or the lives of those who tend to the needs of those incarcerated. This chapter also explores his approval of non-judicial execution of social undesirables in the Soviet Union.

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Bernard F. Dukore

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Dukore, B.F. (2017). Corporal Punishment and Worse. In: Crimes and Punishments and Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62746-5_9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62746-5_9
Published: 18 October 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62745-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62746-5
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