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Scarlet Letter Dbq

Decent Essays

To this day, the extent to which sex offenders should be punished for their crime continues to cause controversy. The debate concerning the severity of punishment for these offenders hasn’t come to a resolution. Regulations called Scarlet Letter Laws have been implemented to protect people from sex offenders, yet these laws have caused problems regarding their morality. While these laws provide safety from dangerous convicts, they also violate certain civil rights. Scarlet Letter Laws are valid in many sexual assault cases, but can be unjust and should be modified in others. On one hand, these laws have proven to be effective because they alert the public when a sex offender is living within close proximity. Communities should withhold the …show more content…

According to the law, women must list their sexual histories if they want to put their child up for adoption and are unaware of the father’s identity. While parents looking to adopt may want background information on the child’s mother and father, the law is unreasonable. “No exceptions were made for rape or incest survivors or for underage girls”, which is unjust due to their dire situation (Source E). This regulation relates to the injustice seen in Hester’s situation in The Scarlet Letter. When Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery, she’s punished by being made to wear an “A” for the remainder of her life. Her sin was a crime during that period, so her lifelong shame was justified in the Puritans’ eyes. The women affected by these laws are given a similar fate to Hester, as they are publicly branded for life. These girls wishing to put up children for adoption haven’t committed a crime, so therefore shouldn’t have to bear the weight of public shame. In the novel, Hester is physically branded, while Dimmesdale is not, even though they carried out the same sin. This parallels the hypocrisy seen in the law. If women are required to openly share their private information, then suspected fathers should have to come forward and give their data, too. Government legislatures should alter this law so that those affected by sex offenders don’t have to give up their confidentiality

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