Violence, Punishment and evil behaviours in relation to the theories
Introduction
Since time immemorial, humanity has been dogged by incidences of extreme violent behaviour. At times people react with disdain and anger to the mere thought that humans can consciously go out of their way to commit grievous harm towards one another. In conventional legal systems, the only justification for violence is in self-defence and even then, one’s motives still come into question. Today violence is being experienced virtually in all parts of our life. There are issues such as school shootings, muggings, terror attacks, gang violence, domestic violence, war crimes and many other atrocities that dominate mainstream news. The best video games and movies have the heavy emphasis of violence in common. Despite all these examples, violent behaviour is still a subject of debate by law- makers and psychologists alike(Gross, 2008).
To some extent evil behaviour in humans can be termed as normal and part of our nature. The only reason why it still shocks us is the fact that most people learn front an early age how to restrain themselves. This is why those who engage in evil acts are sometimes termed as backward. It is as they somehow failed to evolve to a level where they can rein in their violent thoughts. Evil behaviour in humans often needs a trigger for it to be seen. In relatively ‘normal’ conditions, most people manage to keep their cool. However, if conditions change, they can be unpredictable.
In the context of a prison environment, cruel punishment is that which is not equitable to the offence that has been committed. Cruel punishment has a more malice than rehabilitation as a motivation. It is meant to injure the prisoner rather than reform the person’s behaviour. Cruel punishments leave both physical and psychological injuries on the victims.
If one is to change status from a prisoner to a correctional officer, there is a very high likelihood his or her behaviour will change. The change can however be for the better or for the worse depending on the experience he or she had as a prisoner. If the person was extremely deprived of his or her right to self-determination, such a person may over-compensate by being overly dominant over the prisoners. This is what may cause one to become cruel and become extremely abusive, violent and generally cruel towards the prisoners. At times however, the same person may be determined to correct the situation and now over-compensate on the correctional officers’ behalf. This may make the person overly lenient on the prisoners (Gross, 2008).
In the maintenance of peace and order, one may adopt violence in a bid to assert his or her dominance over those who are being monitored. As long as this domineering activity is maintained, the prisoners or civilians will have to remain submissive to the one who is in authority and also any symbol of that authority such as the police officers. This is motivated by the premise that any empowerment of those being ‘ruled’ will make them violent.
From the above it is clear that the issue of violent and cruel behaviour is highly subjective depending on the people involved, the situations they are in and the goals that they have in those different places. In prisons for instance, majority of the inmates are incarcerated for deviant behaviour. It is therefore only logical for the prison authorities to rule with an iron fist, though at the same time, this power needs to be regulated.
References
Gross, B. (2008). Prison violence: Does brutality come with the badge? Forensic Examiner, 17(4), 21-27
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