Reader Response #3

In the article, “How People Turn Monstrous”, Mark Buchanan states that people who become abusive and monstrous because of situational environment should not be punished.

In the beginning of the article, Buchanan reminisces the CBS News' public broadcasting several years ago of the abusive and insane acts that guard officers have imposed on the prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Because the prisoner guards' abusive and humiliating ways of treating the prisoners are highly criticized, the government feels a need to punish them by picking out the “few bad apples” as Buchanan mocks.

Then, Buchanan continues to argue that these so-called “few bad apples” should not be the ones getting punished for. Buchanan states that even the most pacify person can turn monstrous in a situation where authority is given to the person. He backs this argument up using the famous experiment in 1970s where Philip Zimbardo and other psychologists at Stanford University placed several students in the basement lab of the psychology department. Some students played the role as prisoners and some as prisoner guards. The experiment lasted for lass than a week due to the shocking results of emotional breakdown of several student prisoners and the abusive behavior of the student prisoner guard. I believe the experiment serves a valid support in backing up Buchanan's claim. The result of the experiment shows that even the most ordinary people, with no records of abusive acts, become offensive towards others with less power under the situation.

With the experimentation showing that people's behavior can be alter based on their surroundings, Buchanan questions whether or not it is still considered a crime if a person simply act the same way any other people would act in that specific situation. Although Buchanan makes a good point and support, it does not, I believe, exclude the people from receiving punishments for their unacceptable acts. A crime is a crime and the criminal should be punished. If Buchanan's claim that all normal and ordinary people would have done the same in that situation can be used as an excuse to exclude those people from receiving their punishments, then, all other criminals such as thieves or robbers can defend themselves in court by simply stating that because of their situation so they have no choice but to go out and rob someone else. It is nearly impossible to differentiate crime that is done out of free-will or any other factors. Thus, I believe this claim provide a loophole for others to break apart his claim and argument.

It seems to me that Buchanan's article is mostly pointing fingers at the incompetents and corruption of the government. In the end of his article, Buchanan claims that the people such as the prisoner guards that committed insane acts due to environmental pressure should not be punished. The ones that should be taken into justice are the ones in the White House. The one with the most authorities that are sending down orders to the innocent civilians.

Overall, I believe Buchanan's article sets up a good claim and backs up validly with a strong support.