How Have Criminal Punishments Evolved, and How Does Technology Aid Investigations?

As our class began The Scarlet Letter, the terrible yet strange punishment that Hester received, the letter "A" - it stood for adultery - stitched onto her gown, immediately stood out to me.  Although adultery is a sin, I feel that Hester's punishment was too unusual and cruel.  However, in her time, this was among the standard solutions that society had to deal with convicts.  With this in mind, I decided to research the evolution of solutions that people apply for crimes, as well as how technology has changed the process of investigating a crime.  
Criminality has existed since primitive times.  In ancient society, crimes, including treason, witchcraft, sacrilege, and breaches of the hunting rules, were punished by either extinction or banishment.  As time progressed, people began using torture and death sentences as new solutions to accost criminals.  The objective of these punishments was to penalize the wrongdoer.  But, during the Dark Ages, under the feudal system, authorities regulated the criminal system in order to prevent others from doing bad deeds, using any degree of punishment to stress their point.  The criminal system became practiced more often in society, and it was brought to the Americas with the pilgrims while establishing their new society.  Cruel and unusual punishments continued to be administered, until the French Revolution evolved these punishments, making them less harmful to the welfare of the malefactor.  
Today, new technologies, such as robots, GPS systems, and advanced cameras and computer systems, greatly aid the investigation and surveillance of crimes. 

Image of a technologically advanced camera

The most important technological advancement is the computer databases.  Computer databases allow police departments to exchange information anywhere.  Also, they are a superb solution to lowering the crime rate.  This solution has been proven to be accurate, since a news report in 2012 declared that the crime rate has been the lowest since the early 1960s due to the aid of computer databases. 

How are Stereotypes Addressed by Artists?

Subsequent to reading The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie, and "Black Men and Public Space", by Brent Staples, our primary focus in class was about stereotypes and how it can alter a person's perspective of a race.  Stereotypes affect all races, but it is more prevalent for African Americans because, for a large part of American history, African Americans have been negatively classified as second-class citizens, thus being treated inferior to whites.  This problem has been addressed by many artists, but I feel that the artist Charles White creates works of aesthetic value while addressing this issue.
Charles White is an African American artist that lived during the Civil Rights Movement, and whose artwork depicts the lives of African Americans in Black America.  While researching his work, I came across one of his lithographs that I found interesting, called Sounds of Silence 11.

Sounds of Silence 11 by Charles White 

Sounds of Silence 11 was White's way of expressively describing the distress of African Americans due to racism and stereotypes during the Civil Rights Movement.  The focal point of this lithograph is the conch shell.  In many cultures around the world, the conch shell, due to its loud vibrations and religious ennoblement, calls people to gather and support a cause.  Therefore, in White's lithograph, the conch shell symbolizes the awakening, or call, of African Americans to gather and take action in the Civil Rights Movement.  Stereotypes are the basis of prejudice and vice versa, and artists, such as Charles White, address this problem in hope that people realize the problems that stereotypes create.  

Can Hunger be Resolved?

This week, we discussed how the children's hunger, due to the parents' selfishness, plays a significant role in the memoir The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls.  The children weren't well fed, but when they found food they did not waste it.  However, there are many people that waste food, and I think it is important to address this problem. 

Hunger can be alleviated if people do not waste food.  In 2012, according to Modern Farmer, a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says that 43 billion pounds of food was wasted in the US in 2008.  Also, Modern Farmer estimates that even a 15% reduction of food waste can feed 25 million Americans each year. These statistics are great, but realistically, many people do not truly care or look into this problem because hunger does not affect them like it does for others and they feel that keeping track of their own food waste is too much work.  It will take a long time for people to become psychologically aware of their food waste, but in the meantime, technology is proposing solutions to make it easier.  One way is with smart fridges; pioneered by LG and Samsung, smart

Image of Samsung smart fridge

fridges monitor the food in it, alert its consumer when food is going to spoil, and uses the Internet to create recipes with leftover foods.  Another solution is with apps - three popular food apps are:  Green Egg Shopper; Love Food, Hate Waste; 222 Million Tons - that help a person shop for groceries smarter.  They keep track of when the food is going to be wasted, create portion planners, and give ideas of how much of a food a person should really buy.  By advancing and introducing new technological solutions, hunger, both nationally and globally, shall decrease immensely.