Social Factors of the Abolition of Punishment in Public Space

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  • 公開刑廃止の社会的要因
  • コウカイケイ ハイシ ノ シャカイテキ ヨウイン

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Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between the abolition of punishment in public space and social changes in Japan. Penal system in Edo period functioned to maintain the status order and then punishing people in public was indispensable to restore broken status order because symbolic event of violence to the offender's body revived social consciousness of the large social distance between offender and victim. Modernization and collapse of status order in Meiji period forced feudal penal system changed. Punishment vanished from public place because of Ritsu-ryou system introduced. The system was soft on criminals but it is not very important. Behavior and consciousness of intellectuals and statesmen who aspire to rationalize penal system represented a more important factor that they reflected changing social order; punishment in public space had been invested with a "punishment" meaning for rigid status order existing and it became a cruel behavior when status order collapsed. As a consequence, the feudal relics had been abolished in twelve years.

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