My Essential question is “Is it right to stigmatize sinners?”.

This article, Stop labelling people who commit crimes ‘criminals’ by Kimberly Brownlee, a professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. Brownlee argues that labelling people who commit crimes as “criminals,” “offenders,” or “perpetrators” is dehumanizing and reductionistic, defining a person by one act and failing to recognize the circumstances that may have led to it. Additionally, these labels suggest that everyone who has committed a crime has a tendency to offend.

Brownlee claims the reason why people label others by using the example of Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. She maintains that these punitive markers publicly identify and stigmatize transgressions.

Why is labeling others wrong?
Brownlee argues that People who offend are not always blameworthy. And, people who are blameworthy are not always criminally liable. Moreover, even when people are both blameworthy and liable, they have a life story beyond the simple fact of committing a crime. Psychology studies indicate that we are more lenient in our judgment of someone for an offence when we know the details of their story.

In conclusion, stigmatizing others is unrighteous because all people who offend are not always blameworthy, and people who are blameworthy are not always criminally liable.