Crime and Punishment

Victor

1. Imagine a family on a car trip. The parents in the front, small children in the back. The parent in the passenger seat has one packet of sweets for each child. Each time there is an outburst from a child, a sweet does out the window from their packet. The children get their sweets at a later point in the journey.

2. Two men get out of a taxi and run away, not having paid the taxi driver. Unfortunately for them, they run into the arms of two gardaí who drag them back, search their pockets and on seeing the don't have enought cash, frog march them to an ATM to get money for the taxi driver.

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Both scenarios are modestly appealing to out minds - misbehave and you will be punished. However, in the first, the children are only learning through fear - the reward for good behaviour comes too late. In the second, while there is immediate restorative justice, it also smacks of rough justice.

The concepts interest me and I wonder if anyone can recommend some (online?) reading.

Valmont

Victor wrote: »

1. Imagine a family on a car trip. The parents in the front, small children in the back. The parent in the passenger seat has one packet of sweets for each child. Each time there is an outburst from a child, a sweet does out the window from their packet. The children get their sweets at a later point in the journey.

Theoretically, a better scenario would be to reward the children with a sweet for every, say, 10 minutes of good, silent behaviour. Research shows that an individual is more likely to change their behaviour by being reinforced for emitting "desired" behaviours rather than being punished for emitting undesirable ones.

Although that's the traditionally held belief, I read an articled not too long ago (no source, sorry) that demonstrated the benefits of a combined approach, i.e. rewarding desired behaviours and punishing undesired ones.

Now that I think of it, that last point seems to directly contradict some of Skinner's early studies on punishment but I definitely read an article on the subject. I will post it if I find it.

Here's an excellent starting point: Operant conditioning

Not sure about your second scenario and what concept it is supposed to represent?

Victor

Valmont wrote: »

Not sure about your second scenario and what concept it is supposed to represent?

I'm not sure. but the issue of how and when to punish is of interest. Certainly, I think the effects of verbal reprimands at the time are under-stated / under-used and the desire to implement harsh punishments over-stated.