Aiona's I-am-pregnantblog

Aiona
Aiona has 228 days to go and is now in week 7
	Age: is relative Country: USA Province/region: South City: no thanks, I'd rather live in the country Partner: howdy Children: Yes, 1 Pregnant: Please select Due date: 1 Oct ,2012 Occupation: with everything
	Online: 36 days ago. Last updated: 215 days ago. Member since: 1053 days
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21-9-2009 - Punishment -- What is it Good For?

My mood while writing this blog:
...

So, now I can say, not only has my son been sailing with me, before he was even born, he's also gone to court when I served jury duty.

I don't know if jury duty is just an American thing, or not. If one is a registered voter in the U.S., one's name is put on a long list of people who can randomly be selected to serve as a member of a "jury of peers" in a trial. I got called to that duty for the first time in my life, recently.

There were maybe 150 of us in that courtroom. It was to be whittled down to 12 jurors, who would then go on to decide on a man's fate and his punishment. It is the job of the lawyers -- both of the defendant and the prosecuting party -- to select from this group of 150 random citizens 12 people who may see their client's side of the story.

In weeding people out, the defending lawyer asked us all a question.

His question was, "What do you think punishment is for?"

I was like, "Huh?" And apparently so were the rest of the citizens in the courtroom, because no one answered. So the lawyer prompted us with choices.

"Okay, let's see a show of hands. Who believes punishment is for punishment?"

No one raised their hands.

"Okay, let's see. Who believes punishment is to protect society?"

A bunch of people raised their hands, and I did as well.

He gave a bunch of other choices, which I don't remember. But, his point had been made. Often times, people choose to send someone to jail so they don't do whatever it was they did to another innocent person. (I think another of his choices was "punishment as rehabilitation." I do believe in this in SOME cases, but I didn't raise my hand, as I was already busy contemplating why I thought punishment protected society.)

Anyway, it got me thinking. Here is a grown man who may or may not have killed someone. I would put him away in prison "to protect society."

But a child. What is the purpose of punishment for a child? "To protect society"? Of course not. How can a child hurt society? But in essence, if I were to punish my son for hitting a girl in the mouth, I would be theoretically protecting society, because my son shouldn't grow up thinking he can go around popping girls in the mouth for no reason -- especially once he's grown!

Or is it punishment for punishment's sake?

I still don't know.

I like to think that in the future, I will be able to tell my son what's "right" and "wrong" from my own perspective, which has helped me to get along in life fairly well. But what if he strays? Both my husband and my father have told me that they shoplifted as children -- ONCE. Their mothers (my grandma for my dad, and my mother-in-law for my husband) punished them in different ways, but both of them NEVER DID IT AGAIN.

I gotta say, whatever they did was pretty effective punishment for "protecting society."

But not only protecting society, but also themselves. My dad doesn't steal, even today. And I'm ever so glad about that, because he would never have met my mom if he were in prison. My husband doesn't steal, even today. And I'm ever so glad about that, because I wouldn't have met him if he were in prison. :)

Punishment. Will I have the nerve to punish my baby boy if he does something "wrong"? And will I be effective at it? I sure hope so. For his sake, and for society's sake. And for the sake of whomever he chooses to one day marry.

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