A few years back I read a novel (I hate myself for forgetting the name...some dystopian steampunk western) in which the story's main town, instead of throwing them in jail, branded rapists, pedophiles, and murderers with their respective crime. After being branded on both cheeks, chest, back, and backs of hands, they were released outside of the town with the choice to continue living there at the risk of public humiliation and beatings, or to continue life elsewhere. Do you think this is a preferable alternative to jailtime? Is this a reasonable way to deal with such types in an anarchist society?
