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Newspapers are full of apologies these days, from Toyota to Tiger Woods. But papers in the Boston area are also running a growing number of "mea culpas" that are ordered by the courts.
Increasingly, companies that plead guilty to crimes that harm the community — polluting, for example — are being required to publish an apology as part of their punishment.
"Our company has discharged human waste directly into coastal Massachusetts waters," reads an ad in the Boston Herald placed by The Rockmore Co., a local ferry operator.
"That's pretty ... that's bad," says Cindy Cisco, from her spot at a coffee shop in Marblehead, Mass. "That's terrible."
The ad says the company has paid a "steep fine," but people in the area seem more moved by the price the company is paying in reputation.
"I think it's great, because they're going to learn their lesson," says hairdresser Danielle Yocum. "They're probably not going to put human waste in the ocean again."
Retribution Versus Deterrence
Former federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan has helped increase the use of these kinds of sanctions in Massachusetts, especially with companies that run afoul of environmental laws.
The goal is deterrence, and Sullivan says the high-profile mea culpas also tend to be more satisfying to a public increasingly frustrated by corporate wrongdoing.
"I think that's what might frustrate the public — when it doesn't appear that the company has been punished sufficiently enough, by simply writing a check," he says. "It's simply the cost of doing business when you're caught."
The "scarlet letter" treatment has long been used to sanction individuals, from shoplifters or drunken drivers confessing their crimes on sandwich boards to the public shaming used back in Puritan times.
"You would like to think that sentencing is evolving to move away from these types of public shaming. We got out of doing that for a reason," says Stellio Sinnis, a federal public defender.
Sinnis represented a Massachusetts fisherman who purposely sunk an old boat. When he was caught, the fisherman had to run an ad saying that cutting corners was "not worth it." He offered to go on a speaking tour to make that point directly to other fishermen, but prosecutors insisted on the newspaper ad.
Sinnis questions whether the goal was really more about a kind of retribution than deterrence.
"When you impose a sentence that embarrasses family members and creates hardship — public humiliation and public ridicule — and kind of ostracizes someone from the community, I think it's gratuitous, and that's just counterproductive to what you want to achieve," he says.
But Does It Work?
Some offenders have appealed their sentences as cruel or unusual, but the courts have ruled that humiliation is within the bounds of fair punishment.
Still, shaming sanctions continue to raise age-old questions about making a punishment fit a crime.
"Whether we call it vengeance, whether we call it psychic satisfaction, whether we call it restitution, we are getting at the core of what we as victims can rightfully claim to be entitled to," says Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman.
Berman says judges must be careful when shaming individuals, but they don't have to worry the same way about scarring a company.
"Corporations don't feel," he says. "There are times when we do want to put the hurt on a corporation, especially if it's a corporation who hurt the community."
When it comes to shaming corporations, Berman says, the real question is: Does it work? Judges ought to be encouraged to try to find out, he says.
Plot is the events or series of events that make up a story.
Theme is the overall, general, philosophical guiding principle that motivates the action of the story.
Characterization is the revelation of or description of character. It is accomplished through dialogue or description by the author or by another character or by the narrator.
Dialogue is the speech between characters in a novel, story, or play.
Place (Locale) is the scene of the action.
Setting is the scenic environment of the story, including types of buildings.
Mood is the temper of mind of the reader or of the character through the events of the story.
Time is the time period in which the action takes place.
Viewpoint is the stance from which the story is told. It can be omniscient or limited. It can also be first or third person.
Symbolism is using characters, events, settings, or objects to represent more than themselves.
Foreshadowing is the giving of information that, at the time given, has no apparent purpose, but becomes important later in the story. Foreshadowing, at times, can create tension in the mind of the reader, or it can reveal character, or it can aid in the climax.
Suspense is an uncertainty or anxiety as to outcome. It is a state aroused by circumstances of the plot.
Emotion is an agitation of mind or disturbance that creates identification and/or continued interest.
Crisis is a serious action that upsets the equilibrium of events.
Conflict is the clash and subsequent struggle for mastery involving events or characters.
Climax is the culmination of action in a work. It is the maximum disturbance of equilibrium the moment of intense strain and tension from which there is no escape.
Anti-climax is a series of events that are less important than the ones preceding them.
Denouement is the conclusion or final wrap-up of a story.
