GC: n
S: PennLaw – https://bit.ly/2Rm0qo0 (last access: 9 April 2017); EncBrit – https://global.britannica.com/topic/exile-law (last access: 9 April 2017).
N: 1. “act of banishing; state of being banished,” c. 1500, from banish (late 14c., banischen, “to condemn (someone) by proclamation or edict to leave the country, to outlaw by political or judicial authority,” from banniss-, extended stem of Old French banir “announce, proclaim; levy; forbid; banish, proclaim an outlaw” (12c., Modern French bannir), from a Germanic source (perhaps Frankish *bannjan “to order or prohibit under penalty”), from Proto-Germanic *bannan) + -ment (suffix forming nouns, originally from French and representing Latin -mentum, which was added to verb stems sometimes to represent the result or product of the action. French inserts an -e- between the verbal root and the suffix (as in commenc-e-ment from commenc-er; with verbs in ir, -i- is inserted instead (as in sent-i-ment from sentir). Used with English verb stems from 16c.). Earlier was banishing (mid-15c.).
2. A form of punishment imposed on an individual, usually by a country or state, in which the individual is forced to remain outside of that country or state.
3. Although it is decidedly archaic in contemporary criminal justice systems, banishment enjoys continued existence and periodic resurgence in application. Its use is hard for legal scholars to track, but banishment is still employed in at least a handful of states, particularly in the South, as a viable alternative to incarceration.
Banishment—also known as exile or deportation—has its origins in Greek and Roman times and in worldwide histories of other kingdoms and countries such as China, Russia, and England. In ancient times, banishment was an effective punishment because it contemplated that offenders leaving a settled community would necessarily wander in the wilderness, shamed by their loved ones and unwelcome in other settlements. During England’s colonial times, banishment and “transportation” were common forms of punishment. Transportation involved the relocation of criminals to one of the colonies. In colonial America, Englishmen who married African American or Native American women were banished from their colony.
4. In its original form, banishment had a twofold efficacy. Not only was physical survival a challenge outside of one’s protected community, but the psychological and emotional damage from the scourge and condemnation of family, neighbors, and community was equally dreaded. However, as settlements and communities grew closer together, banishment meant the freedom to move to another location and to perpetrate the same crimes against an unknowing and unsuspecting community.
5. In contemporary populous societies, the effect is lost. One community’s exile becomes the neighboring community’s problem. In the 1980s, California “banished” a parolee, giving him a one-way bus ticket to Florida, where he later murdered a woman. Cuba exiled much of its criminal prison population to the United States, where many of the exiles were imprisoned because of crimes committed there.
6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention The Banishment (2007), a movie directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev.
S: 1. OED – http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=banishment&allowed_in_frame=0 (last access: 9 April 2017). 2 to 5. TFD – https://bit.ly/2H4TzKU (last access: 9 April 2017). 6. The Guardian – https://bit.ly/2TCLY7G (last access: 9 April 2017).
SYN:
S:
CR: banished person, deportation, deportee, exile, exiled, extradited person, extradition.
