Two stories come on during the crime section of the 6 o’clock news. In the first story, a man is described as a 
convicted sex offender. He is living at an address that you know is in your city. Citizens that live on the streets 
nearby his address are shown picketing in front of his house, voicing their displeasure that he is allowed to live 
there. The video shows how angry the neighborhood is, and you can visibly see their frustration and angst on the 
people’s faces in the news clip. 
The second story is of a woman who was detained (shown in the back of a squad car) for stealing food from a 
local grocery store, apparently to feed her children. The store manager is then on the screen describing that he is 
offering to donate the food to her so that she does not have to spend time in jail or get into any more trouble. 
How do these two stories make you feel? Is it the same feeling for each story? Does one of these stories make 
you feel more afraid of crime? More angry or upset? Which one? Who deserves to get punished more? How much 
punishment should they get? The answers to questions like these instantly flood our thoughts as we are watching 
news blurbs like this, and in general, when we hear about a crime. This is all normal. And, this process is what 
generates our own personal punishment ideology. 
Now, which one of these two individuals has actually committed a crime? A second point to this story is that our 
perceptions of punishment can be influenced by the narrative (what is presented to us). 
Although the change in our overall perception or use of the rehabilitation ideology is slow, it is necessary. 
As we will see in the next sections, our reliance on the “Brick and Mortar” approach to punishment comes 
at a great cost, and the results are less than desirable. 
ALISON S. BURKE, DAVID CARTER, BRIAN FEDOREK, TIFFANY MOREY, LORE RUTZ-BURRI, AND SHANELL
SANCHEZ
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