The use of punishment and aversion therapy procedures are a constant ethical challenge for behavior analysts. One of the original reasons for the development of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board were cases of abuse from behaviorists.Bailey, J.S. & Burch, M.R. (2005). Ethics for behavior analysts.
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Over time, interest faded in Cohen's CASE project.Rutherford, A. (2009). Beyond the Box: B. F. Skinner's Technology of behavior from laboratory to life, 1950s-1970s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Other studies found that in proper supervision of staff in behavior modification facilities could lead to greater use of punishment procedures.
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Over the years, behavioral management principles such as reinforcement, modeling and even the use of punishment have been explored in the building of prosocial behavior. This area is sometimes referred to as "Behavioral Development" or Behavior analysis of child development. Midlarsky and colleagues (1973) used a combination of modeling and reinforcement to build altruistic behavior.Midlarsky, E., Bryan, J.H., & Brickman, P. (1973).
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Underwood, L.E., Tallbott, L.B., Mosholder, E, & von Dresen, K. (2008). Methodological concerns of residential treatment facilities and recidivism for juvenile offenders with disruptive behavior disorders. The Journal of Behavior Analysis of Offender and Victim: Treatment and Prevention, 1(2), 214-228. BAO The use of functional analysis has been shown to be teachable to staff and able to reduce use of punishment procedures.
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Israel learned that with the use of punishment, he could control and reshape her behavior as he desired. When his first attempt to build a utopia failed, he tried a second time. The second attempt also quickly failed. Israel believed that the reason the experiments had failed was because he had too little control over the participants, and because they all had the option to move out.
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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 3(2), 123–142. However, it may also have powerful and lasting side effects. For example, an aversive stimulus used to punish a particular behavior may also elicit a strong emotional response that may suppress unpunished behavior and become associated with situational stimuli through classical conditioning.Schwartz, B, Wasserman, E. A., & Robbins, S. J. "Psychology of Learning and Behavior" (5th Ed) (2002) Norton, New York Such side effects suggest caution and restraint in the use of punishment to modify behavior.
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According to a study reported in the NY Post newspaper, 48% of parents reward their children's good grades with cash or something else of meaning. Among many families in the United States, this is controversial. Although psychology experts support the offer of reward for good behavior as a better alternative than the use of punishment for bad behavior, in some circumstances, families cannot afford to give their children an average of 16 dollars for every good grade earned. Alternatives for money include allowing a child extra time on a computer or staying up later than usual.
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Based on the "broken windows" theory of criminology and the Gun-Free Schools Act, zero tolerance policies stress the use of specific, consistent, and harsh punishment to deal with in school infractions. Often measures such as suspension or expulsion are assigned to students who deviant regardless of the reason or past disciplinary history. This use of punishment often has been linked with increasing high school drop out rates and future arrests. It was found in a 2018 study that students who received a suspension were less likely to graduate and more likely to be arrested or on probation.
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As evidence that prison abolitionism is gaining traction as a movement, advocates point to the creation of Critical Resistance, an organization that "seeks to build an international movement to end the prison industrial complex," the 2015 National Lawyers Guild passage of a prison abolition resolution and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) solidarity with Black Lives Matter in adoption of a platform calling for participating budgeting that divests from policing to invest in community resources, such as parks and housing. In the words of the New York City DSA chapter, "The work of prison abolition is the work of building a world in which we make prisons and police obsolete." Ruth Wilson Gilmore, abolitionist and prison scholar, speaking at a conference in Berlin, Germany. Prison abolitionists—embracing the slogan "Stop, Shrink, Build"—challenge the use of punishment as a means of protecting society or making redress, pushing for the implementation of restorative and transformative justice programs in schools and counties to address crime prevention, justice and healing.
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