‘A paradise for rascals’: Colonialism, punishment and the prison in Hong Kong (1841-1898)
Hong Kong was widely regarded as a colonial enclave in which the lash and the rattan were used far more frequently than in any other part of the world. This article shows that the custodial sentence never entirely superseded corporal punishment: the idea that legal sanctions should deter rather than...
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| Izdano u: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/chs, |
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| Glavni autor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
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Crime, Histoire & Sociétés
2009
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| Online pristup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sažetak: | Hong Kong was widely regarded as a colonial enclave in which the lash and the rattan were used far more frequently than in any other part of the world. This article shows that the custodial sentence never entirely superseded corporal punishment: the idea that legal sanctions should deter rather than reform was widespread among both European and Chinese communities in Hong Kong, and both favoured a punitive approach towards the criminal. Prisoners were initially locked up together in common cells while awaiting transportation, a practice which became more common as practical problems prevented the use of existing modes of punishment, in particular transportation, branding and the use of a hulk ship. This article analyses the gradual transformation of the prison from a site of deterrence to a place of reformation in the nineteenth century. |
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