Flogging…What is it? What is it for? For those of us who have never heard of flogging, flogging refers to “beating with a whip, strap, or rope as a form of punishment” (“Flogging” 1). Throughout the 1600s, flogging was used by the "Puritan forefathers of Boston" (Jacoby 1) as a method of corporal punishment for various crimes. Moving forward, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby gives readers his take on the "Boston ancestors" punishment system in his essay "Bring Back Flogging." In the contents of his work, Jacoby describes how flogging was used as punishment in his time. One example he uses involves a woman who pleaded guilty to adultery. He writes that his punishment consisted of “fifteen individual blows to be applied to his bare back at the common whipping post” (Jacoby 1). In his article, Jacoby argues for the revival of flogging and Puritan-style punishments in the United States. Furthermore, the author illustrates how imprisonment has become the general form of punishment in society and is now outdated. Jacoby suggests that to reduce costs and prevent future crimes among first-time offenders, we must turn to flogging. Jacoby's logic in his argument is that since crime rates are increasing, keeping prisoners in prison is expensive and "the penal system is being choked to the point of bursting" (Jacoby 1), prisons should be abolished and flogging should take the reins as the new normal. form of corporal punishment. Given the above, Jacoby's argument for the return of flogging is unconvincing because its assumptions are inconsistent and flogging itself is inhumane and might prove ineffective. To begin with, Jacoby's assumptions can be considered bad... ... middle of paper ...effective at all. It doesn't take into account that flogging could actually lead to more crime in today's society. Crimes have evolved and sanctions must evolve as well. Returning to flogging, a primitive form of punishment, would counteract the effectiveness of crime prevention. Obviously times are different. The people and the crimes they commit have changed, as has flogging, because the popular process of edifying convicted criminals is a thing of the past and prison time is a thing of the present. In reality, people should look for ways to prevent crimes from happening rather than looking for ways to punish people. Overall, criminals, whether convicted of murder or tax evasion, remain criminals and will serve prison time accordingly. Finally, as the 1970s TV series Baretta once said: “Don’t commit a crime if you can’t do the time” (“Baretta” 1).