Based on what we know about puishment, why would there be so many different types of punishment? Why not just find one that works and use it? Based on what we know about punishment, which method do you think would be the most effective? Why?
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/punishments/index.html
I wouldn't want any of these punishments. But If I had to choose, I would say the Street Punishment or the Punishment of the Cangue (as long as the board came off eventually).
I thought this was interesting of the Punishments in Saudi Arabia
http://www.photius.com/countries/saudi_arabia/national_security/saudi_arabia_national_security_crime_and_punishment.html
In order for a punishment to be successful at deterring a behavior, it must be salient and aversive. If the punishment is not severe enough it will not have an impact on modifying the undesirable behavior. What one person finds aversive is likely to be different from what another person would consider to be aversive and it is therefore necessary to use several different methods of punishment to compensate for individual differences. For the chinese, it would appear that any method of death is the most effective punishment, but that doesn't really leave any room for deviance after the punishment so i'm not sure how effective it really is...
Based on the punishments chosen by the Chinese it would appear they found fear to be the best way to change a behavior. Punishments that cause severe pain or even embarrassment are believed to work well at discontinuing a certain behavior. In the photos it is clear they also made examples out of the inidividuals being punhised. If others see the consequence of unwanted actions, then they would be less likely to do similar behaviors. There must be different styles of torture for multiple reasons. There is a certain balance that must exist...more severe the offense, more severe the consequence must be. I do agree that what some find to be a severe punishment, others may not. If an individual does not have a negative experience following an action, then they are given no real reason to discontinue that behavior. As following. I believe an effective punishment must be reasonable with the offense. If punishements are made too severe, they limit freedom to act and therefore limit opportunities to learn.
The most effective form of torture would most likely be the Cangue style. Some of the other forms cause so much physical pain that the person would most likely die. It would be hard to emit positive behaviors if you have no head. The Cangue style seems to be torturous, but it seems to cause some of the least physical harm. It seems to be more mentally debilitating, which hopefully would cause the person to change their aversive behaviors without scarring them for life.
I believe there are many different types of punishment because the degree of the offense often differs, execution being for the worst crime and some sort of public embarrassment for the simple crimes. After observing the photos, I believe that any public display of punishment would be most effective. Street punishments or any of the 'Cangue' punishments would not only teach the individual who committed the crime, but also teach others the consequences of that individual's actions as well. In general, this public display of punishment would change behavior and/or encourage new behavior within the population.
I believe that the number of punishment types stems from the amount of torture the executers wanted to inflict on the individual. In some cases, such as beheading an individual, the punishment is quick and final. The individual physically suffers little before death. Other punishments, by a parricide for example, inflict severe pain before ending in the death of the individual. The final form of punishment involves more mentally damaging consequences rather than physical. This can be seen in the images of the cangue. I feel that there are many forms of punishment to fit the varying degrees in severity of the crime. For the individual being punished I feel that the cangue would be the most effective because they must live with the punishment rather than receiving death shortly after it. I feel that the parricide would be the most effective in terms of teaching others to not commit the act because they witness the excruciating physical pain the individual must suffer before receiving death. For the Chinese as a whole, I feel that public display of punishment was their way of conditioning others to not commit specific acts.