What's better than punishment?

[Panjandrum]

But if I was told by my doctor that my illness was caused by the pizza, I like to think it would at least give me pause for thought before I bought one from the same pizzaria. Similarly, getting a speeding ticket makes me drive a little more carefully, at least for a while.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by Panjandrum

Similarly, getting a speeding ticket makes me drive a little more carefully, at least for a while.

And what do you do then? You watch out for cops... you buy a radar detector... you go online to see where the speed traps will be that day... But do you stop speeding forever because you were punished? Nope... You were never intrinsically motivated not to speed. You approached in terms of "not getting caught," as opposed to "I shouldn't speed."

[Panjandrum]

True. However, I am incaple of learning from my mistakes. I had thought normal people had this capacity / weakness?

[Kayra]

The only thing better then punishment is the lack of a requirement for punishment.

BigDog, you have kids, that much is obvious as your wisdom regarding them is rock solid and, I would bet, hard won as well.

If this thread is regarding how to raise children, all we have to do is review his posts.

If this is about the criminal element in our society, then we are dealing with a different issue entirely. We as individuals have little influence over a criminal. their personality and traits are set, and we are likely to have little chance to effect change.

To that end, I believe that the criminal is minimally affected by the severity of the punishment. Every criminal has to believe he will get away with what he is doing, or he would not do it. It is as simple as that. For that reason, the likelihood of a crime being committed is directly related to the chance of getting caught, and has only a minimal relationship to what happens when they are.

The solution? Most are not going to like this.
Ubiquitous video surveillance. Big brother with a vengeance. The only place that VS should not be allowed is on private property.

City managers are finding out in a hurry that if VS in put in place, crime practically disappears in that area.

The public should not be allowed direct access to the video streams. The people monitoring the cameras should be in a public building, in a glass room. The public should be able to see what they are watching at all times.
This should be implemented on a case by case basis in areas that require the system most. Each implementation would easily pay for itself simply by the reduced crime rate .

Public scrutiny of all of our actions outside of our home though could be a darned hard thing to get used to, but actually get end up being a comfort for most of us.

For me, I would accept it in an eye blink if it meant my kids could safely walk from my house to the gas station to get a slurpy.