There has been a growing trend in certain states to punish people by works of shame rather than the normal letters of the law.

Instead of paying a fine for certain crimes or spending time in jail, those convicted of a crime pay up by wearing a sign of some sort that explains the terms of exactly what they were convicted of.

The idea of shaming basically vanished after colonial times, but is now re-emerging in an effort to instill the basic feeling of shame in connection to crimes that are deemed extremely embarrassing and unfortunate in the view of society.

Such signs as “I am a convicted drunk driver and as a result, I took a life,” have been seen as punishment for those convicted. But what exactly is accomplished by punishing convicted criminals this way? They might learn their lesson for the moment, but after that moment they are characterized in their community as the face of that crime.

When the issue is drunk driving and potentially killing a person or buying drugs the public is notified about that one person and the crimes he or she have committed. Nothing more could be much more cruel or unusual, considering that one person is being saddled as the face of that crime.

Sure, it may work and change that person’s mind set for the moment, or maybe, if successful enough, the rest of that person’s life. However, shaming that one person does not account for the faceless many who just simply pay a fine or less-simply spend some time in jail.

For those people, unlike those who are shamed, they get to go through the normal process in which they have to go to jail and live with the result once they get out. They are probably embarrassed and will have a tough time readjusting to real life and trying to make a living, but at least they haven’t become the face for all that is wrong with whatever crime they may have committed.

Those who go through the shaming process still struggle with the same issues that those who go to jail do. Possible employers still see the blemishes on that person’s records and exactly what they did wrong, so the chances of them getting a job are still seriously hindered. So it doesn’t seem to make much sense to make one person in particular go through a serious day of extremely isolated shame.

That person walks up and down a public street with their badge of shame hanging around their neck, or they have their picture posted under a label on a subway and are immediately associated by those who see it as that crime.

Initial judgment doesn’t leave room for living that down, no matter how hard a person tries to change. But if a person goes into prison and comes out, they are expected to get another chance from those who are making the decision.

The possibility of more wrong things happening also sneaks into the equation. Considering that some may seriously have something against those who are being spotlighted for that crime, drastic measurers may be taken in response to the anger associated with that crime.

It could cause more violence, and do more harm than good anyway. But, overall, it just seems like the entire process of shaming somebody is outdated and unusually cruel to that one person.

Because that person or persons has been convicted of the crime they have committed, they still should not be the only one associated with the crime at hand.