What's better than punishment?

InfiniteNow · 03-14-2006

Punishment, I feel, doesn't work. It motivates people how to get away with things more than it prevents them from wanting to do them. What should we do instead? This question is even tougher when we ask what we might do to replace the current prison system.

Do you have any ideas of what a better system might be to keep society functioning and to keep people making choices which do not harm others?

http://hypography.com/forums/social-...html#post90253

Racoon · 03-14-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Punishment, I feel, doesn't work. It motivates people how to get away with things more than it prevents them from wanting to do them. What should we do instead? This question is even tougher when we ask what we might do to replace the current prison system.

Do you have any ideas of what a better system might be to keep society functioning and to keep people making choices which do not harm others?

http://hypography.com/forums/social-...html#post90253

Yes...
You take away privledges. But thats the same as Jail in a sense.

Time for Bad little Johnny to go to time out.

And then you send them to Drug Rehab and Counciling, with the money you save from a policy of non-incarceration

TheFaithfulStone · 03-14-2006

Hypnotic reprogramming?

Genetic screening?

Mass medication?

I don't know. End poverty and you end crimes of property. How to end poverty -- well for that you need to eliminate scarcity. Think Star Trek. If I could replicate those great shoes, I don't need to steal them. If I'm not hungry, I don't need to make money to eat, or buy a car, or anything.

Of course, you still have crimes of passion. For that you have to eliminate excessive emotions. If I don't care if you steal my girlfriend, I won't kill you for doing so.

And then, as they say on the Simpson, "Elephants are like people, some of them are just jerks." What do you do with people who just don't want to get along?

How to eliminate crime? Kill everybody.

Violence and crime are symptoms, not diseases. Unfortunately, they seem to be symptomatic of human life. Or at least interesting human life.

TFS

Drip Curl Magic · 03-15-2006

well, that one allstate commercial got me thinking. Reward really does work better than punishment.

But can we apply that to all aspects of a functioning society? anyone got any ideas?

somehow reward people who obey the law?

InfiniteNow · 03-15-2006

This is a bit of a seperate issue, and I really want to stick to the heart of this thread, "What can we do instead of punish?" but...

Most people go into prison like a freshman into college. Then, by the time they come out, they've got a PhD in crime. It's a crime university, not a correctional facility.

What do we do instead though?