published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

The death penalty occupies an essential place in Victor Hugo's work, notably in his narrative work where he emphasizes the rhetoric resources in attempts to convince his reader of the necessity of abolishing this practice which he considers "barbaric". This memoir suggests a reading of this rhetoric, concentrating on various specific Hugolian arguments and suggesting a global vision of his reasoning. The first chapter demonstrates that the opposition between law and his application lies at the root of the judicial criticism according to Hugo, from which also stems the question of death penalty to begin with. We then study the genesis and the functioning of multiple arguments depicting the consistency and persistency of Hugo's reasoning, these arguments being interpreted from novel to novel. Finally, in the third chapter, we analyze history's role as a meta-argument of the abolishment; the historical development often structuring the opposition of Hugo's theory regarding the excessive use of capital punishment.

No description available.

The overall objective of the study is to explore with young people their attitudes and experiences of corporal punishment. The specific aims are: i) To explore children’s experiences of corporal punishment ii) To ascertain children’s attitudes towards corporal punishment iii) To explore alternatives that children suggest to corporal punishment as a form of discipline In this study I conducted in-depth interviews with eighteen early adolescents between ages of 10 to 15 year olds from a community in Imbali, KwaZulu Natal, and Pietermaritzburg. It was intentional to explicitly work with children from a similar black township of Zulu background. Hence the only representation I sought to address in this group was gender and the group was equally represented with 9 boys and 9 girls using a snowball sampling. The prominent findings of the study which confirm some of the previous studies of particularly Dawes et el (2004 and 2005); Maree and Cherian (2004); and De Wet (2009): Mothers are the prominent disciplinarians in the home. Adults use and support corporal punishment as tool to discipline. Criminalising corporal punishment has not been effective. Corporal punishment has worked as a temporary deterrent. Children still think corporal punishment is the only way to prevent children from being spoiled this is despite the fact that they think of it as painful. Boys tend to be more aggressive after the punishment. Girls are more fearful prior to the punishment. Children prefer being punished at home rather than at school. Collective punishment by teachers in schools was seen as unfair. Most preferred alternative to physical punishment was withholding of privileges like pocket money. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

Parental use of aggressive discipline, specifically corporal punishment (CP) and psychological aggression (PA), has been shown to increase the risk of problem behaviours in children and adolescents. A major gap in the research concerns our lack of understanding regarding how CP and PA contribute to adverse development in adulthood. Because these techniques do not occur in isolation, a number of protective factors were also considered. Both CP and PA were associated with lower levels of parental warmth/support and responsiveness, and more inconsistency in discipline; whereas high induction was associted with more frequent CP and PA. CP predicted later partner violence, and PA predicted anxiety and lower self-esteem in adulthood, even after the effects of positive parenting were considered. These findings suggest that not only do CP and PA tend to occur within environments that are less conducive to positive development, but also predict problematic outcomes in adulthood even after protective factors are considered.

Neither currently prevalent justifications of punishment, nor a modified, contractarian version of a justification that I develop here, can be used to justify actual state punishment, even if some forms of punishment may remain legitimate. I argue in this thesis that alternative punitive practices such as developed by some Canadian aboriginal communities are more likely to conform to the criteria of punitive justice developed by standard justifications, as well as being more likely to conform to criteria developed in feminist ethics.

Parental use of aggressive discipline, specifically corporal punishment (CP) and psychological aggression (PA), has been shown to increase the risk of problem behaviours in children and adolescents. A major gap in the research concerns our lack of understanding regarding how CP and PA contribute to adverse development in adulthood. Because these techniques do not occur in isolation, a number of protective factors were also considered. Both CP and PA were associated with lower levels of parental warmth/support and responsiveness, and more inconsistency in discipline; whereas high induction was associted with more frequent CP and PA. CP predicted later partner violence, and PA predicted anxiety and lower self-esteem in adulthood, even after the effects of positive parenting were considered. These findings suggest that not only do CP and PA tend to occur within environments that are less conducive to positive development, but also predict problematic outcomes in adulthood even after protective factors are considered.

To elucidate the neural generator of the feedback error-related negativity (fERN), which is an event-related brain potential (ERP) component elecited following negative feedback, this study utilized a converging method approach by applying electrophysiological methods to replicate a reward task modeled after a functional magnetic resonance imaging, single-cell recording, and primate studies that activated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with negative feedback. This study involved two ERP experiments. The first involved a replication of the reward task and the second experiment involved a modification of the reward task that separated the valence and instructional aspects of the feedback stimulus. Experiment 1 demonstrated that methodological issues can arise when using ERP methods to replicate a paradigm used in other neuroimaging techniques. Experiment 2 was conducted to control for these methodological issues. For experiment 2, the reward condition following a switch movement elicited a large N2 component, which consequently overlapped with the fERN. I concluded that if participants are incorrectly expecting negative feedback after switch trials, the `unexpected' positive feedback following the switch trails violated their expectation, thereby eliciting a large N2, and not a fERN. This hypothesis will be tested in several follow up experiments by modifying the paradigm in Experiment 2 so that all the possible combinations of condition mappings can be applied.

The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze similarities and differences in trials and punishment from a gender perspective, during the inquisition in the episcopate of Linköping. A inquisition initiated by duke Karl but performed by archbishop Abraham Angermannus in the year 1596.During the working process a quantitive method was used in the purpose of getting statistic data considering number of men and women that were trialed and punished. A hermeneutic qualitive method was also used in the purpose of closer investigating certain cases that men and women were involved in. The theoretical concepts that have been of importance and used in this study are the individual and the female subject that is based on gender in judicial procedures.The results showed that 49 % of the men were trialed for quarrel. Not as many men were trialed for contempt towards the church and witchery.The most frequently used corporal punishment in this cases were flogging that were executed for totally 38 % of the men.The investigation also proved that men were punished with these forms of corporal punishments for showing their contempt towards the church. Although flogging were the most sentenced punishment for quarrelsome husbands, some were set free from this, even if they had behaved very badly towards their wife.Not many noblemen was affected by Angermannus inquisition and only six out of seven in total calculations, were trialed for contempt against the church. None of them were punished. In the case of women whom lived in the episcopate, witchery were the most trialed crime.As for the men, the most usual form of corporal punishment for women, were flogging that was executed for 51 %. However, flogging in comparison with number of men punished a greater number of women. But not as many noblewomen were trialed or punished, in comparison with the number of nobleman. Only two were trialed for contempt towards the church.Considering fornication and adultery, a much larger number of men were trialed for adultery. When it comes to certain forms of punishment, more men than women were sentenced to pay various forms of fines to the church. At the same time, a smaller amount of men were sentenced to flogging followed by a number of buckets with water, that were poured over the condemned. Considering the nobles and the cases of sexual crimes more men than women were trialed.Between the sexes, more men than women were sentenced with conditional sentences. In some cases the conditional sentences were identical between the sexes, meanwhile another case proved that a conditional sentence were sentenced for the household.How did the inquisition affect women with different social status? In this case considering farm girls and widows? 112 farm girls and widows were trialed in the episcopate. The quantitative study showed that 94 farm girls in contrast with 18 widows was trialed. Not many widows had to suffer the corporal punishment in comparison with farm girls, whom not only got more punishment, but also were sentenced to flogging, a punishment that never was attested to widows. Keywords: Archbishop Angermannus, gender, 16th century, inquisition, protocol, trial, corporal punishment