Public hanging

Experience shows that public hanging of criminals results in brutalisation of society

The National Assembly yesterday passed a resolution calling for public hanging of those convicted of sexually assaulting and killing children in view of the increasing cases of such offences in the country. The sentiments of the members who asked for public hanging deserve to be respected. However, it is a knee-jerk reaction, based on emotions, to the growing problem of crimes against children. The hand-written resolution referred to the “brutal killing of 8-year-old Iwaz Noor in Nowshera”. PPP legislators did not support the resolution. Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPP leader and ex-PM, said, “Ramping up the severity of punishments does not result in a reduction in crime. We cannot put public hanging into practice as it violates the laws of the United Nations.” Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry also opposed the call for public hanging. He wrote on Twitter, “…Societies act in a balanced way. Barbarism is not the answer to crimes.”

We agree with this stance because all aspects of a decision should be taken into account before deciding on that particular action. Harsh punishments are indeed needed to act as a deterrent to rising incidents of rape, assault and murder of both females and males. Even capital punishment becomes necessary in heinous cases. Experience, however, shows that public hanging of criminals results in brutalisation of society. Since large numbers of people assemble to witness public executions, it apparently gives the impression that public hangings might deter the potential evil-doers. This usually is not the case, however. In many countries of the world, public hanging was put into practice in the hope that it will have more impact as deterrence than executions within jails. This proved a false hope. So the practice was abandoned. In the contemporary world, especially when human societies are fast returning to the state of nature where man’s life has again become short, nasty and brutish public hangings would make life nastier and more brutish. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2020.

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