Punitive Pain Rays

[Elok]

You know those microwave pain-ray things currently under development for crowd control? They hit the news some months ago (I forget who was making them) and sparked respectable amounts of controversy. How they work is, they zap a person's skin with a beam of concentrated radiation that heats up the water in it very rapidly. It feels like your flesh is burning, and is by all accounts intensely painful, but causes no actual damage to the body if used properly. There were fears that these devices could be used for torture/"rendition," along with discomfort with the idea of them being used even on rioters.

How about using them for punishment of criminals instead? Our jails are currently overcrowded and every prisoner costs a substantial amount of tax money. Only certain crimes, of course, and in relatively short bursts strictly prescribed by the judge doing the sentencing. I'm thinking that, for example, drunk drivers get thirty seconds of pain time, so that the next time they're hammered and thinking about driving home they dimly remember excruciating pain and decide to take a cab or crash with a friend.

It might also be applied, more harshly, for non-sexual child abusers. Also wife-beaters, pimps, white-collar criminals...the main criterion for deciding who gets pain-ray punishment is, "Is this a crime which the perpetrator could have easily stopped him- or herself from doing with a little self-control?" The classical conditioning principle wouldn't work as well with child molesters and drug addicts, who have an innate and continuing urge to do the bad behavior in question.

I wonder how much trouble this question will land me in, and with who?

[DaShi]

Cruel and unusual punishment

[Proteus_MST]

What happens if you (accidentally or intentionally) hit the eyes with this ray? They contain lots of fluid after all.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
What happens if you (accidentally or intentionally) hit the eyes with this ray? They contain lots of fluid after all.

That was my first thought too - guess that it explodes.

OT - DaShi has given the answer.

[Blake]

I imagine the victim shuts their eyes and the eyelids take a beating.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by DaShi
Cruel and unusual punishment

Unless you use the current definition of torture, which is: "Because we don't torture, if we're doing it, it can't be torture."

[Perfection]

Would there be a saucy uniformed lady-cop administering it?

[Riesstiu IV]

Should be renamed Pwn Rays.

[Elok]

I thought that would be raised, but really, what is "cruel?" The purpose of punishment is to discourage further antisocial behavior, no? So what distinguishes a quick dose of the pain ray from a long, tedious stay in prison? Really, what? Jail is a different kind of unpleasantness and costs far, far more, plus while the guy's in prison he may very well get butt-raped, abused by corrupt guards, etc. With a pain-zap it's all done in a few moments, easily overseen, and provided the ray is aimed at the small of the back or somewhere similar and the guilty party is held down while it's administered, there's basically no chance of hitting the eyes. No physical trauma is inflicted, and with oversight there's also minimal risk of sadism/abuse.

As for unusual, it ain't unusual if it's standard operating procedure. Just to be clear, the idea makes me vaguely uneasy too, but I can't think of a logical objection to it at the moment.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Corporal punishment as means to prevent Crime was discredited ages ago.

[Dr Strangelove]

If you make it "the usual punishment" then it is no longer cruel and unusual, it's just cruel.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
Corporal punishment as means to prevent Crime was discredited ages ago.

I imagine that depends largely on the nature of the crime. Still, could you present a source? And/or a source showing that imprisonment is significantly more effective as a deterrent?

[Heraclitus]

I always fell so civilised after reading suggestions like this.

[Solver]

What does the proposal have to do with rays such as that? It's hardly different from any other form of corporal punishment. Okay, these rays supposedly don't cause any bodily harm except the pain itself but there are many other ways to cause pain without long-term damage. You can whip people painfully without doing any lasting damage - would you then be fine by instituting that as a punishment?

[Bkeela]

It makes me sick to think of the poor lab animals that tested this device to ascertain it wasn't lethal.

Goodness knows what long term effects it will produce.

I'm not even going to humour the original post. Torture as a means of criminal punishment is not a road we should go down.