In Defense of Flogging by Peter Moskos

B.P. Terpstra ^ | 23 October, 2013 | B.P. Terpstra

[AustralianConservative]

Peter Moskos, an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, and the author of In Defense of Flogging, is coming to the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. But don’t feel sorry for Australian criminals just yet. Indeed, Moskos is more about closing prisons than punishing offenders.

Actually, In Defense of Flogging should be retitled In Defense of Demonising Prisons because Moskos’ book is devoted to paying out expensive prisons. As for justice, he argues that criminals should be given the choice between a good flogging and jail time.

It’s not a compelling argument. Actually, In Defense of Flogging uncritically repeats many media-approved myths about unaffordable prisons, without focusing on how costly freeing criminals would be; leaving the robbed reader with little more than a twisted left-wing libertarian argument to chew over.

We are also asked to accept that the so-called prison-industrial complex in the United States is racist because African Americans are overrepresented; so does this mean that the same system is also sexist? After all, there are more men doing time than women. And how, in any case, would flogging “overrepresented” minorities help fix things?

For a professor, Moskos is fond of excuse-making generalisations, especially when they support his view that criminals are victims. Thus, statements such as, “In response to boredom and fear, many prisoners turn to drugs and alcohol to pass the time” and “One prison dealer estimated that 75 percent of prisoners get high” lack meat.

[AustralianConservative]

http://www.bpterpstra.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/in-defense-of-flogging-by-peter-moskos.html

[Fai Mao]

Actually it is a compelling argument a lot of times

[calex59]

I believe in flogging and the stocks for certain crimes, not just flogging alone. This must all take place in public in order to achieve the maximum humiliation on the prisoner.