Perceptions of collective and other unjust punishment in Swiss prisons: a qualitative exploration

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-06-2021-0059
• Published date: 22 February 2022
• Date: 22 February 2022
• Pages: 241-250
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice
• Author: David Shaw,Helene Seaward,Felix Pageau,Tenzin Wangmo,Bernice S. Elger

Perceptions of collective and other unjust

punishment in Swiss prisons: a qualitative

exploration

David Shaw, Helene Seaward, Felix Pageau, Tenzin Wangmo and Bernice S. Elger

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to describe andanalyse Swiss prisoners’ and experts’ views on collective

punishment,the practice where a group is punishedfor one person’s transgression.

Design/methodology/approach –A series of qualitativeinterviews with prisoners and stakeholdersare

reportedfollowing thematic analysis.

Findings –Despite being forbidden by the Geneva Convention and other international instruments,

participants from this study expressed the view that collective punishmentcontinues to be practiced in

some form in prisons in Switzerland, violating the rights of prisoners via unjust and arbitrary decision-

making, unjust rules, inequalities in prison structures and continuation of incarceration based on the

behaviour of others. Families can also be both victims and vectors of collective punishment, and

prolonging the detention of prisoners who would otherwise have been released because of rare high-

profilecases of reoffending can also be considereda form of collective punishment.

Originality/value –These significant findings suggest that collective punishment in various forms

continuesto be used in Swiss prisons.

Keywords Criminal justice system, Prisoners, Human rights, Medical ethics, Punishment,

Collective punishment

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Collective punishment has a long and inglorious history, ranging from incorporation in

formal justice systems, its occurrence in wartime atrocities and its use in modern

educational and penal establishments. From the first recorded instances of

“familial exterminations” under the Qin dynasty in China over two millennia ago

(Bourgon and Erismann, 2014), through various war crimes including the Nazi’s policy of

killing dozens of Polish people for every German death (Chodakiewicz, 2004), to

schoolchildren’s complaints that it is not fair when an entire class is punished for one

pupil’s transgression (Lundy, 2017), the fundamental injustice of punishing the many

for the crime of the one or the few has continued to be practiced in various forms.

Collective punishment is unethical and unjust because it does not discriminate between

the wrongdoer and other members of their community, punishing innocent people for the

transgressions of others.

In wartime, collective punishment is now strictly forbidden. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva

Convention, on individual responsibility, collective penalties, pillage and reprisals, states

that: “No protected person may be punished for any offense he or she has not personally

committed” (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2020). The Third Geneva

Convention also states that “collective punishment for individual acts” is forbidden and the

David Shaw is based at the

Institute for Biomedical

Ethics, University of Basel,

Basel, Switzerland and

Care and Public Health

Research Institute,

Maastricht University,

Maastricht, The

Netherlands.

Helene Seaward,

Felix Pageau and Tenzin

Wangmo are all based at

the Institute for Biomedical

Ethics, University of Basel,

Basel, Switzerland.

Bernice S. Elger is based at

the Institute for Biomedical

Ethics, University of Basel,

Basel, Switzerland and Unit

of Health Law and

Humanitarian Medicine,

Center for Legal Medicine,

University of Geneva,

Geneva, Switzerland.

Received 23 June 2021

Revised 28 September 2021

19 November 2021

17 January 2022

18 January 2022

Accepted 19 January 2022

Funding: Schweizerischer

Nationalfonds zur Fo

¨rderung

der Wissenschaftlichen

Forschung.

DOI 10.1108/IJPH-06-2021-0059 VOL. 19 NO. 2 2023, pp. 241-250, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH jPAGE 241