The incarceration punishment given to an ex-Chief Justice, as to others, should be looked upon as a normal way society calmly punishes those who have erred. Without passion, with restrained emotion. With a certain mental pain, as it is doing the inevitable - not the desirable - to a human being. I will not here go into the psychoanalysis of stating that criminal non-conformism exists in everyone while it is unrestrained in some and mistakenly allowed to take control in others. The bottom line, however, is that man was not born good. He is prone to the temptation of obtaining satisfaction of needs and whims using the shortest Machiavellian ways possible.
As soon as the least pleasure or satisfaction is drawn out of the punishment of others (as the punishment of self also exists but is rarely condemned by society), this stops being punishment and becomes vulgar sadism.
Punishment as a measure of improvement of society is meant to protect civilised groups, families and the offender him/herself. Punishment in its best form is thus also a pedagogical tool using negative and positive conditioning.
Positive punishment hardly exists in society. Punishment without reform is a simple gratification of an urge for revenge. One must admit that there are persons who have absolutely no sense of right and wrong either, from a legal or moral point of view. This does not mean that they have absolutely no possibility of improvement. And it is, in turn, the moral duty of society to exploit all possibilities of reform of the offender.
On the other hand, most offenders can be criminals in a culture and innocent in another. One must obviously adapt oneself to the culture one is living in and non-conformism must not take illegal aspects. However, dedication to social change and rational militancy are not only harmless but necessary. Each individual has the right and duty to contribute to bring about the evolution of society. If that evolution is not desired by the majority, at least, the legal and intellectual non-conformism is a contribution to the diversity of opinion required in a democracy.
Community work is among the best types of reform effort in society, especially when incarceration is a total non-utilisation of a person's energy and intelligence. It is a pity that it is used so little when it is beneficial to one and all, not simply as a prevention of crime but also as an exploitation of the little good that exists in everyone. Community work takes away the boredom of a pure lazy-time spent in prison waiting for the end of a prison term, which feels much longer if spent sitting around doing absolutely nothing. And inaction is the promoter of mental illness and crime, as also proved by observation and research in social psychology.
Coming back to punishment, history shows that a long time ago punishment was a form of public entertainment. It was held in a public square and people tried hard to get front seats to gawk at the infliction of pain at close quarters. The enthusiastic audience consisted of sadists obtaining pathological physical and psychological pleasure out of the vision and sound of the pain of others.
These people still exist today. They do not necessarily have an aggressive look in their eyes. They use their voice and opinion to wave the white flag of self-righteousness by camouflaging their love of punishment of others as an expression of law and order. They write in hatred against persons who have had problems with the law instead of promoting serious reform. They use the pen as a weapon of physical and psychological torture of the offender and as many members of his/her family and friends as possible. If they could, they would replace the ink in their pen with the blood of the victim of their hatred. This is expressed with relish, satisfaction and great hurrahs of pleasure, all in the name of solemn law and order, which society needs to thrive, especially those members of society whose comfort must not be disturbed.
In reality, expressed love of law and order and expressed horror of criminal non-conformism may be a simple defence mechanism coating the legendary religious tombs.
The worst thing one can do in the management of punishment, as contrary to the encouragement of reform, is to taunt and insult the punished offender and his/her human environment. It is counter-productive. It is inhuman. It is disgusting. It is no less criminal than the behaviour of the persons they are condemning. The media and the institutions must disapprove of it.
Dr Licari teaches psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.