Is it caused by the physical punishment, or is the inconsistent, harsh physical punishment actual indicative of other learned or innate behaviors that ALSO tend to manifest in criminal behavior?
On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Larry Lyons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The article was not good, but its really an old finding, going back to the > Glueck's research with juvies in the 1930's. Unfortunately the article > never mentioned the type of physical punishment or its frequency. A lot of > the research I'm familar with found similar results to what was mentioned, > but it really depended on other factors as well. Herer's my summary of the > research: > > There is an effect for physical vs non-physical punishment - over all > those who were physically punished ash children were more likely to engage > in criminal behaviors as teens and adults than those who were not subject to > physical punishment. In other words those who received withdrawal of > priviledges, being grounded, mild deprivation of rewards etc., were far less > likely to become juvinile delinquents or adult criminals. > > That's not the entire story however, not only is the type of punishment > predictive, but the severity of the punishment was strongly associated with > later criminality. Kids who received more violent punishment were more > likely to comitt crimes as teenagers and adults. The experience of > relatively mild punishment was less likely to be associated with becoming an > adult criminal or a juvie. > > The factor however that has a much stronger influence is consistency of > the punishment. By this I mean that the kid would be punished on on occasion > but not for another occurance. Kids who received Inconsistent harsh physical > punishment were the most likely group to committ crimes later on, followed > by inconsistent mild/non-physical punishment. The groups that were least > likely to committ crimes were the children who received consistent > non-physical punishment, followed by consistent physical punishment. > > So despite the sadistic ideology of beating the crap out of your kid for > even looking at you wrong, the data is very consistent over 75 years. > Physical punishment does not necessarily work. From a behavioral point of > view at best it serves to interrupt a chain of behaviors, it does not allow > for new learning. Moreover physical punishment is very rewardign to the > person doing the punishment, so they are far more likely to use it again > following another transgression. > > So in general the conclusion is very solid, physical punishment does not > work. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:255092 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
