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Humiliation as punishment

British offenders depressed at the prospect of sweeping out bus stations in a fluorescent jacket identifying them as a criminal, or being shamed in a “conviction poster,” can console themselves with the thought that they could be at the cutting edge of a historic revival.

The reforms, suggested in a report by Louise Casey, former head of the British government’s Respect Unit, hark back to the days of Ancient Rome, where prostitutes were forced to wear a man’s toga as a badge of shame.

Originally used in medieval Europe as a means for the community to punish petty offences, “degrading treatment” was outlawed in the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

According to Amnesty International and Penal Reform International, contemporary examples of “shaming sentences” are rare.

Examples of public humiliation are harder to find, but there are some American judges out there who have blazed a trail. Judge Mike Cicconetti, of Painesville, Ohio, is something of a market leader on this. He once sentenced three men convicted of soliciting sex to wear bright yellow chicken costumes carrying a sign saying “No Chicken Ranch in Painesville,” a reference to a famous Nevada brothel.

Fluorescent yellow jackets could be just the beginning. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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