(2002). Wounded Monster – Hitler’s Path from Trauma to Malevolence. Lanham MD: University Press of America.
(1992, with Miller, M. L.) Clinical Interaction and the Analysis of Meaning: A New Psychoanalytic Theory. Hillsdale NJ: Analytic Press.
(1991). Gaslighting, the Double Whammy, Interrogation, and Other Methods of Covert Control in Psychotherapy and Analysis. Northvale NJ: Jason Aronson.
(1985). Denial and Defense in the Therapeutic Situation. New York: Jason Aronson.

This groundbreaking book by an award-winning psychoanalyst and forensic psychiatrist presents a comprehensive exploration of a timely but often taboo topic: the failure of punishment to deter crime and violence, an issue that...

This groundbreaking book by an award-winning psychoanalyst and forensic psychiatrist presents a comprehensive exploration of a timely but often taboo topic: the failure of punishment to deter crime and violence, an issue that affects us both individually and as a culture.
Written at the culmination of the author’s fifty-year career as a psychoanalyst, forensic psychologist and scholar, this wide-ranging work identifies the origins of violence and investigates the surprising consequences of punishment from a multitude of perspectives. In his treatment of the topic, Dr. Dorpat utilizes scientific research; ethical reasoning, and his vast clinical experience and insight. He also suggests the benefits of new and emerging humane alternatives to the revenge/punishment model currently entrenched in our society, such as restorative justice. In contrast to most contemporary measures, these new approaches—while still imprisoning dangerous individuals—effectively stress reparation and forms of sanctioning other than incarceration. When restitution replaces revenge, everyone benefits.
Crimes of Punishment examines four key, interrelated social methods of punishment. These are (1) the corporal punishment of children, (2) the incarceration of adults in prisons, (3) capital punishment—the death penalty, and (4) emotional (verbal) abuse. As he elucidates and analyzes each of these forms of punishment, Dr. Dorpat clearly and logically makes the case that punishment is not only ineffectual but that it also engenders more of what it ostensibly aims to stop: violence and misbehavior. Both children and adults who are subjected to punishment tend to become more violent individuals.
In covering the full scope of our contemporary justice system Dr. Dorpat brings to the forefront those who are often overlooked or dismissed: the victims of crime. His concluding chapters present and clarify the psychological wounds and needs of these individuals, and demonstrate how restorative justice is effective in attending to victims in an ethical and healing manner. In a humane and ethically evolved society restitution replaces punishment.
Offering insights gained from his many decades of work as a psychoanalyst and forensic psychologist, the he presents a compelling picture of the detrimental effects of punishment, as well as a look at the new possibilities for restorative justice now being explored in Britain and Australia. Informed by scholarship, compassion, and a desire to confront injustice, this important work opens new ground for reconsidering our contemporary justice system.

Dr. Dorpat's analysis will interest general readers and especially

• Mental Health Workers, including Psychiatrists, Psychoanalysts, Psychologists, Therapists, Nurses, Social Workers
• Criminology / Prison Reform, including Judges, Guards, Criminologists, Victim Advocates
• Restorative Justice Workers
• Social Justice Studies
• Ethics Specialists
• Women’s and Childrens’ Rights Activists
• Veterans and Veterans’ Advocates
• Religious Leaders
• Philosophy / Religious studies

Our society’s punitive social systems and methods for dealing with violence and misbehavior both in children and adults are actually exacerbating the maladies they are ostensibly designed to correct. Punishment does not correct or prevent violence; punishment causes violence.
The corporal punishment of children and the incarceration of adults are forms of violence, and both children and adults who have been subjected to these harsh punishments tend to respond by themselves becoming more violent to others.
This book presents two different kinds of arguments against the use of punishment: the moral (or ethical) approach, and the scientific approach. Scientific studies on the effects of punishment of both child and adult offenders demonstrate that punishment tends to be counterproductive. Not only does punishment fail to accomplish the goals of correcting or deterring the offender from committing further offenses, it actually tends to foster, in both groups, more antisocial behavior.
My opposition to punishment is founded on my belief in nonviolence and the teachings of the great spiritual leaders who teach us, as Jesus and the Buddha did, to be nonviolent and to be compassionate to everyone. The reasons I give for abolishing the punishment of children and adults are similar to the points put forward by those who have supported a variety of nonviolent movements. More specifically, my opposition to punishment is also informed by a half-century of professional experience as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with patients with whom I have observed and studied the destructive effects of punishment.
With adult offenders, however, my definition of punishment does not include those criminal sanctions such as penalties, community service, parole, probation, and the like, all of which are ordinarily not harmful to the body or to the mind of the offender. Similarly, I feel that children who misbehave should be subjected to nonviolent and nonpunitive methods of discipline, including penalties, time-outs, and the like.
For me, nonviolence is a way of life and a fundamental ethical value. Because nonviolence has always been an important part of my belief system and my values, it would require an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence to convince me that any kind of physical or emotional punishment of humans of any age can be morally justified.
Fortunately, I am not confronted with any conflict between my nonviolent values and my scientific principles, because the scientific evidence from many studies supports my values. Investigation of corporal punishment, of emotional (verbal) abuse, and of the punishment of adults by incarceration demonstrates that punishment is psychologically and emotionally damaging to humans.
In 1966, the American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger published a book, The Crime of Punishment, and in it criticized American prisons for being “factories of crime” as well as for the psychological damage they did to prisoners.
Although his book was praised by many, his recommendations for reform of the prison system were not followed. Since Menninger’s time, the inhumane and harsh conditions in prisons in the United States have gone from bad to worse. The mass incarceration of offenders since 1970 has brought about a fivefold increase in the number of felons locked up behind metal bars. Where, before 1970, some prisons made efforts to rehabilitate prisoners, today most prisons have dropped programs for treating, educating, or rehabilitating prisoners.
In the past hundred years a gradual shift has taken place from the physical punishment of adults to psychological or emotional punishment. The state no longer cuts off the limbs of offenders or scourges them with whips. However it is questionable whether this change has made punishment less harmful, if only because the length of punishment is much longer today than it was before about 1970. For example, felons convicted of murder and waiting on death row for their execution must now wait on average over ten years between the time of their sentencing and the time they are executed. Though the state no longer cuts off limbs or whips prisoners, what it is now doing to punish prisoners is even more harmful because it is so prolonged.
This book investigates four different though interrelated social systems of punishment and domination. They include (1) corporal punishment of children, (2) incarceration of adults in jails and prisons, (3) capital punishment—the death penalty, and (4) emotional abuse (verbal abuse).
In place of such punitive methods for dealing with both child and adult offenders, my book discusses the use of nonviolent and nonpunitive methods of discipline, limit setting, moral education, and rehabilitation for most offenders. The many prisoners who suffer from mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction should not be incarcerated in jails and prisons because incarceration tends to worsen their condition. Rather they should be treated in psychiatric hospitals or clinics or in other therapeutic institutions designed for their care.
The present punitive system not only harms the offenders, it also neglects the basic emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of both the offenders and their victims. The state should encourage and if necessary enforce laws requiring offenders to provide restitution to the victims. This was done thousands of years ago by the Israelites and it is now an important aspect of the new and nonpunitive form of justice called Restorative Justice.
In place of justice based on punishment (retributive justice), I argue for the adoption of a new form of justice, restorative justice, grounded in spiritual traditions based on a belief in the potential of human beings to forgive, to reconcile, and to heal. A final section of this book compares America’s retributive (punitive) approach with the more humane and effective restorative justice approach now being used increasingly in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and other countries.

Chapter Overview

Chapter 1, “A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Effects of Punishment,” examines the effects of punishment on children and adults from a clinician’s perspective, as informed by psychiatric and psychoanalytic knowledge. This chapter includes an original and unique discussion that places emphasis on the destructive effects of the inculcation of shame by punishment.
Chapter 2, “Punishment and the Cycle of Violence,” argues that punishment is a concealed form of violence. The punishment of both children and adults tends to escalate and provoke more violence. Violence begets violence!
Chapter 3, “The Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children,” discusses the approximately one hundred scientific publications showing that corporal punishment of children has long-term destructive effects.
Chapter 4, “Punishments and Perils in Today’s Prisons,” reviews the current major stressors in prisons. These include the failure to treat the many prisoners with mental illness; overcrowding; the psychiatric casualties of supermaximum-custody prisons; rape, gang violence, and murder; and inadequate medical care.
Chapter 5, “Prisons Are Factories of Crime,” argues that the stressful, scapegoating effects of prison life cause rather than prevent criminality.
Chapter 6, “The Scapegoating of Prisoners,” examines the unconscious motives people have for scapegoating prisoners and how the scapegoating is done. Prisons are harmful systems of control and punishment where domination is attained through the scapegoating of the poor, the uneducated, and the nonwhite. Another covert goal of this system is to enhance the power and the wealth of the very rich.
Chapter 7, “The Process of Criminalizing Prisoners—A Relational Perspective,” discusses how the relations between prisoners, as well as between prisoners and guards, promote the psychosocial processes of criminalization, prisonization, the formation of a negative personal identity, and the formation of a negative group identity in prisoners.
Chapter 8, “The Limitations of Prison Reform,” provides narratives about six prison reformers and concludes that their reforms did not endure because they were incompatible with the laws and traditions governing America’s criminal justice system, which places overriding emphasis on punishment. We are not going to effectively treat, educate, or rehabilitate prisoners until we stop punishing them.
Chapter 9, “Arguments for and against the Death Penalty,” deals with arguments for the death penalty, which come from theories of deterrence and retribution. I argue that retribution is disguised revenge. Those opposed to the death penalty believe that killing by the state is immoral, and point to the fact that the workings of the criminal justice system are unfair to the poor, the uneducated, and to nonwhites. Brutalization theory holds that the sight or news of an execution has a brutalizing effect on others, and incites some individuals to commit violent acts, including murder.
Chapter 10, “Is There a Moral Justification for Punishment?” sets out the legal theories, such as deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, and incapacitation, which are used to justify state punishment. I conclude that none of these theories has much validity and that there is no moral justification for punishment.
Chapter 11, “Does Incarceration Deter the Offender from Committing Further Crimes?” discusses deterrence theory, which holds that the punishment of incarceration deters offenders from future criminal activity. I argue that the punishment of incarceration tends to evoke a defiant response and increased criminal activity.
Chapter 12, “Notes on Relationships Between Religion, Nonviolence, and Punishment,” compares and contrasts the nonviolent and nonpunitive approach of the early Christians with the punitive approach of fundamentalist protestant groups in the United States today.
Chapter 13, “Why Incarcerate Women?” supports the view that the majority of women who are incarcerated should not be in prison because they are not guilty of violent crimes. Most women prisoners have been convicted of drug and property offenses. The incarceration of women is destructive not only to the women prisoners, but also to their families, especially their children.
Chapter 14, “Emotional Abuse,” discusses gaslighting, the double whammy, and other forms of covert emotional abuse. This chapter argues that emotional abuse is the most devastating cause of human misery and psychiatric illness. The collective denial of emotional abuse on the part of both perpetrators and victims is explained.
Chapter 15, “Social Systems of Domination and Punishment,” covers the four systems presented in this volume. These have seven defining characteristics: (1) they are culturally engendered; (2) they punish, control, and dominate their victims; (3) they inculcate shame and other disturbing emotions; (4) they cause temporary or permanent psychological damage, which ranges from psychic trauma to soul murder of their victims; (5) many people, including both the perpetrators and victims, share a collective denial of the harm done to the victims; (6) most Americans are unaware of these systems or their harmful effects; the collective denial of the harm done is one reason for the widespread lack of awareness, but not the only one; (7) the moral responsibility for harmful practices resides mainly in the systems rather than in the individuals who work in or for these harmful systems.
Chapter 16, “The Sociopathology of the Prison System,” discusses the current prison-industrial complex and compares the present prison system with the slavery system as it existed in the US prior to 1860.
Chapter 17, “Crimes of the Poor and Crimes of the Rich—A Comparison,” responds to the question: Why are the poor, the uneducated, and the minority races usually punished harshly for their crimes, while at the same time crimes committed by the very rich (and by the large corporations they manage) often elude punishment?
The final five chapters present nonviolent and nonpunitive alternatives to today’s harmful systems of punishment and domination.
Chapter 18, “A Nonviolent Approach to Communicating with and Relating to Others,” and Chapter 19, “On the Effectiveness of Nonviolent Approaches in Groups,” provide a description of nonviolent interpersonal and group relations, and of nonviolent communication. The moral principles underlying nonviolent approaches to groups and to interpersonal (one-to-one) relations are the same: (1) a prohibition against any kind of physical or emotional abuse or punishment, and (2) the maintenance of an attitude of compassion and empathy for everyone. Empathy is a respectful understanding of what the other is experiencing.
Chapter 20, “Restorative Justice—A New Form of Nonpunitive Justice,” provides an introduction to the field of restorative justice and explains how it fosters healing for both offenders and their victims.
Chapter 21, “Domestic Abuse—A Comparison Between the Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice Approaches,” argues that the present punitive system deprives the victims of domestic abuse of any power and often provokes more violence on the part of the abuser. Restorative justice methods such as Family Group Conferences are recommended as a substitute for the punitive measures such as incarceration that are used by the traditional criminal justice system.
Chapter 22, “Restorative Justice and Retributive Justice—A Comparison,” investigates scientific studies that have compared the restorative justice approach with the punitive approach characteristic of the traditional criminal justice system. These studies have reached the following conclusions: Restorative-justice approaches deter crime better than punitive approaches; restorative justice incapacitates criminals better than the traditional punitive approaches; restorative justice approaches rehabilitate criminals better than the punitive approaches; and restorative-justice practices cost less and are more cost-effective than those of the current criminal justice system.
Retributive justice systems tend to cause more violence; restorative justice systems support healing for both victims and offenders.

Chapter 1. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Effects of Punishment

This chapter examines, from a clinician’s perspective and informed by psychiatric and psychoanalytic knowledge, the effects of punishment on children and adults.
I am unable to recall any human being, past or present, whom I have known or read about who has benefited in any way from punishment, either as a child or an adult. There are at least a hundred published scientific studies describing the effect of corporal punishment on children. Not one presents evidence of punishment producing a positive, constructive result. All testify to the psychological harm done to child victims of corporal punishment. Once in a great while, one reads about some prison inmate who has seen the light and reformed. A closer look at such rare exceptions indicates they have changed despite and not because of what the prisons do to them. The overwhelming majority of prisoners are damaged by their prison experience and are psychologically worse off when they are released from prison than when they were first imprisoned. . . .

Introduction and Chapter Overview Chapter 1. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Effects of Punishment Emotional Effects of Punishment Anger, Hatred, Rage, and Revenge Emotion

Introduction and Chapter Overview
Chapter 1. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Effects of Punishment
Emotional Effects of Punishment
Anger, Hatred, Rage, and Revenge
Emotional Numbness and the Loss of Empathy and Compassion
How the Loss of Empathy Contributes to Violence
Feelings of Shame Impair Empathic Responses to Others
The Effects of Punishment on Adolf Hitler — The Inculcation of Shame
Punishment Is Shaming
The Folly of Shaming Sanctions
Does the Shame of Punishment Inhibit Wrongdoing?
How Allen Wheelis Became a “Psychological Slave”
The Childhood Roots of Paranoid Psychopathology
Chapter 2. Punishment and the Cycle of Violence
Television Evokes Violence
Vicious Cycles of Violence in Prisons
Intergenerational Transmission of Emotional and Physical Abuse
The Intergenerational Transmission of an Attitude of Contempt
George’s Legacy to His Children, Grandchildren, and Great-Grandchildren
Internalized Punishment and the Cycle of Violence
Chapter 3. The Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children
Scientific Studies on Effects of Corporal Punishment
Corporal Punishment and Physical Abuse
Depression and Suicide
Assaults on Siblings and Spouses
Violent Crime, Property Crime, and Delinquent Acts
Corporal Punishment and the Development of Conscience
Five Prospective Studies on the Effects of Corporal Punishment
Corporal Punishment Tends to Retard Cognitive Development
Conclusions from Scientific Studies
Nonviolent Modes of Discipline
Wanted — A National Ban on Corporal Punishment
Chapter 4. Punishments and Perils in Today’s Prisons
Care of the Mentally Ill in America’s Prisons
Suicide in Jails and Prisons
Mass Incarceration and Overcrowding
The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration
Prisons Are Dangerous Places
Gang Fights
The Violence of Prison Rape
Supermaximum-Custody Prisons
Invisible Post-Incarceration Punishments
Chapter 5. Prisons are “Factories of Crime”
“A Shocking Level of Failure”
“Imprisonment is an expensive way of making bad people worse”
The “futility of past punitive measures”
“This is a Crime Factory”
The “Failure of Today’s Correctional System”
Discussion
Chapter 6. The Scapegoating of Prisoners
Scapegoating — A Type of Projective Identification
Chapter 7. The Process of Criminalization of Prisoners — A Relational Perspective
Prison Relationships Foster the Formation of a Negative Identity and/or Negative Group Identity
Psychosocial Processes of Prisonization and Criminalization
Shame Inculcation in Prisoners — The Total Degradation Ceremony
Concluding Comments
Chapter 8. The Limitations of Prison Reform
Prison Reforms on Norfolk Island by Captain Maconochie, 1840
Prison Reforms of Elizabeth Farnham in New York State, 1844
Prison Reforms of Howard Bilding Gill in Massachusetts, 1933
Prison Reforms of Thomas Mott Osborne in New York State, 1913
Prison Reforms of Thomas Murton in Arkansas, 1967
Prison Reforms of William R. Conte, M.D., in Washington State, 1966
Prison Reform and Mental Hospital Reform — A Comparison
Custody and Punishment Versus Psychiatry and Treatment
Punishment and Rehabilitation are Fundamentally Incompatible — It’s Not Possible to Reform a Person and at the Same Time Punish Him
Chapter 9. Arguments For and Against the Death Penalty
The Moral Argument for Abolition
Sister Helen Prejean — Spiritual Advisor to a Condemned Murderer
General Deterrence and the Death Penalty
Retribution — The Irrational Doctrine of Immaculate Execution
Retribution
The New Abolitionism — The Argument of Fairness
The Education of Governor Ryan
Forgiveness or Revenge?
Brutalization Theory
The Cost Argument
Conclusion
Chapter 10. Is There a Moral Justification for Punishment?
Incapacitation
General Deterrence
Deterrence and the Fear of Punishment
Retribution
The Moral Education Theory of Punishment
Rehabilitation
False Ideas and Misconceptions about the Corporal Punishment of Children
False Idea 1 — Spanking Is More Effective than Other Types of Discipline
False Idea 2 — Spanking Is Required as a Last Resort
False Idea 3 — Spanking Causes No Harm
False Idea 4 — Only One or Two Spankings Won’t Be Harmful
False Idea 5 — Parents Can’t Stop Spanking without Training
False Idea 6 — Children Who Are Not Spanked Become Spoiled or Run Wild
False Idea 7 — Parents Spank Rarely or Only for Serious Misbehavior
False Idea 8 — Parents Stop Spanking When the Child Becomes an Adolescent
False Idea 9 — Parents Who Don’t Spank Verbally Abuse Their Children
False Idea 10 — It Is Unrealistic to Expect Parents to Stop Spanking
False Idea 11 — Jesus Christ Wants His Followers to Spank Their Children When They Misbehave
Summary
Chapter 11. Does Incarceration Deter the Offender from Committing Further Crimes?
Theories of Deterrence
The Defiance Response — The Role of the Processes of Criminalization, Prisonization, and the Formation of a Negative Identity and/or Negative Group Identity
Effects of Incarceration
Loss of Freedom and Defiance
Conclusions
Chapter 12. Notes on Relationships Between Religion, Nonviolence, and Punishment
“Death is No Big Deal”
On “Saving Souls” Through the Exploitation of the Fear of Divine Punishment
The Apocalyptic Impulse
America’s Most Popular Religion — The Myth of Redemptive Violence
How the Myth of Redemptive Violence Is Internalized by Children
Chapter 13. Why Incarcerate Women?
Women in Penal Institutions
Medical and Psychiatric Treatment in Women’s Prisons
Do Women Offenders Need to Be in Prison?
Chapter 14. Emotional Abuse
Nonverbal Communication
Covert and Explicit Emotional Abuse
Gaslighting
Case Vignette of Gaslighting
Gaslighting and Interpretations of Distortions
The Double Whammy — A Form of Covert Emotional Violence
Case Vignette of the Double Whammy
Metacommunications
The Idealization of Power over People
Effects of Emotional Violence
Guilt and Shame as Effects of Emotional Abuse
The Collective Denial of Emotional Violence
Conclusion
Chapter 15. Social Systems of Domination and Punishment
Seven Key Characteristics of Social Systems of Domination and Punishment
Concluding Comments
Chapter 16. The Sociopathology of the Prison System
Hate the System, Not the Person
The Prison-Industrial Complex
Racism in Rural Prisons
The Slavery System and the Prison System — Some Comparisons
Conclusion
Chapter 17. Crimes of the Poor and Crimes of the Rich – A Comparison
The Unfairness of the Criminal Justice System
Laws are Made for the Rich in Order to Dominate the Poor
Many Large Corporations are Antisocial Systems of Domination
Many Large Corporations Are Antisocial Institutions
Corporate Irresponsibility – A Case Report
Characteristics of APD — Summary
Crimes of the Poor and Crimes of the Rich — A Comparison
Public Awareness of Individual Versus Corporate Crimes
Chapter 18. A Nonviolent Approach to Communicating and Relating to Others
Nonviolence as a Way of Life
Nonverbal Communication — Understanding and Expressing Emotions
Empathy and Compassion
Case Vignette
Nonviolent Responses to the Violence of Emotional Abuse
Clinical Vignette
Two Nonviolent Strategies
Vignette
The Power of Nonviolent Approaches for Preventing Violence
Vignette
Chapter 19. On the Effectiveness of Nonviolent Approaches in Groups
Nonviolence Versus the Myth of Redemptive Violence
Chapter 20. Restorative Justice — A New Form of Nonpunitive Justice
Social Injustice
How Restorative Justice Works
Hope for the Future of Restorative Justice Approaches
Concluding Remarks
Chapter 21. Domestic Abuse — A Comparison Between the Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice Approaches
Mandatory Arrest and Prosecution
Restorative Justice Approaches to Domestic Violence
Empowering Women in Restorative Justice Approaches
Chapter 22. Restorative Justice and Retributive Justice — A Comparison
Retribution and Revenge
Restitution or Retribution?
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa
Amy Biehl — A Case Vignette on the Healing Power of Forgiveness
Who Helps the Victims of Crime?
All Power to the State
Who Is the Victim — The State or the Individual Who Is Harmed?
Punishment and Pain
Does Pain Repay the Offender’s Moral Debt?
The Victim Offender Reconciliation Program
Japan’s Effective Two-Track Judicial System
The Differences Between Retributive Justice and Restorative Justice
Concluding Comments
Bibliography
Index