overpunish

Verb

overpunish (third-person singular simple present overpunishes, present participle overpunishing, simple past and past participle overpunished)

1. (transitive) To punish excessively; to issue a punishment that is harsher than necessary.
   • After each one of the two cards has been presented, the overpunished child will invariably say that the father (or mother) is going to hit the child with a belt, or fist, or some other implement; the child will feel bad; the child will be mad at the parent; and the child will want to run away, or...1976 March 1, Ralph S. Welsh, “VIOLENCE, PERMISSIVENESS THE OVERPUNISHED CHILD”, in Journal of Pediatric Psychology, volume 1, number 2, →DOI, page 68
   • The United States currently incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau. John C. Jeffries Jr., today’s morning lecturer, will propose ways to combat a prison system that often “oversentences and overpunishes.”2013 July 29, Maggie Livingstone, “Jeffries to address ‘oversentencing’ in U.S. justice system”, in The Chautauquan Daily, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2024