Degradation is a term originating from the Latin degradatĭo. The concept is associated with the verb to degrade, which refers to removing a person ‘s titles, distinctions and prerogatives, or to minimizing the faculties or properties of a subject or something.
In everyday language, the notion of degradation is often used as a synonym for dishonor, dishonor or humiliation. For example: “Why do you subject yourself to such degradation? You don’t need the money”, “I will never return to this program: I suffered a degradation that I didn’t expect”, “I decided to get a divorce to end the degradation”.
Demotion, especially in the military, is the action that consists of removing the position and privileges that a person held. If a member of the armed forces commits a serious offense, he can lose his insignia and suffer a reduction in the rank he held. Military demotion can include other sanctions, such as imprisonment or loss of pay: “The president, as commander in chief of the Armed Forces, ordered the colonel’s demotion. ”
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It is a penalty, that is, a resource used by the State to act as a result of a criminal act in the form of restriction of the rights of the person who has committed it. In this case, it is an element of military criminal law, to which appeal is made to formally record that the convicted individual is not worthy of continuing in the military corps and for this reason is stripped of his insignia, his weapons, of his uniform, his rank, his decorations, his honors, his remuneration, his dignities and his benefits, in addition to expelling him from the institution.
In general, military degradation is executed through a solemn ceremony, either in front of the troops or in public, to accentuate the dishonor that it supposes for the affected person. This penalty is also known as dishonorable discharge. Less serious alternatives exist in some parts of the world, such as separation from service, expulsion, loss of military status, and dismissal.
Going back to the disgrace that military degradation entails, we can say that this characteristic makes it an infamous punishment. For this reason, many nations have questioned its viability because it violates human rights, and in some countries, such as Spain and Argentina, they have managed to remove it from their military legislation.
It is worth mentioning that for a long time there are countries that have sought the abolition of military criminal codes in favor of non-criminal or special disciplinary regulations for this area, but rather that criminal behavior can be treated like that of any other citizen, with the same rights and obligations..
The Catholic Church has in its canon law a sanction known as “degradation.” Currently it is used in cases of lack of discipline and not as a penalty, since this last resort can only be imposed by the State using the so-called punitive power. In ancient times, however, theocratic states did use degradation as a penalty.
Environmental degradation, in another sense, is a process whose development implies the loss of natural resources. Pollution generated by human beings, overexploitation and climate change are some of the reasons that can cause environmental degradation.
Suppose a person uses agrochemicals in his field with the intention of strengthening his crops and keeping pests away. This continued and excessive use can lead to soil degradation, which will lose fertility and, in the long term, productivity.