y. The dealings of sin in the 1620-1720’s contrasts greatly with the components of punishment executed by modern authorities. Defense lawyers, probation, and the phrase, “Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” have replaced public humiliation and social isolation. Unalienable rights are now mapped out by the constitution as well as other components of a democratic government. In The Scarlet Letter, a townsman said, “It must gladden your heart…to find yourself, at length, in a land where iniquity is searched out, and punished in the sight of rulers and people” (Hawthorne, 43). Look at the current events, scandals, and crimes, and this statement could apply to descriptions of many justice situations today. Has society really surpassed the criticized methods of the Puritan era’s justice, or is it that the underlying principals remain the same?...
