TED Conversations

griffin tucker

TEDCRED 10+

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

eradicate punishment from the law system. instead, teach.

we as a species should learn to teach right from wrong instead of simply casting away our own species into seclusion, and hoping the problem will go away.

popular law and politics dictates that we should make examples of people who commit a crime to show other people that an action shouldn't be done through means of fear.

in my opinion, fear does not work for the long-run, especially in modern times where upon the public doubts governmental law and even politicians/law-makers themselves.

i propose that methods should be developed that involve mandatory psychologists and sociologists to attend court cases with follow-ups on individuals who are jailed, periodically with the intention to develop reports on as many elements as possible that led up to the crime itself.

with privacy kept in mind, reports could then be made publicly available and delivered to current law-makers/politicians to change or remove elements of a recipe for popular crime.

in cases where societal elements themselves are part of the recipe for a crime, and can be changed or removed, politicians and law-makers have the power to do so via means of education.

to do so through schools is a start, but humans don't ever stop learning throughout their lives, so other ways of educating people who have committed a crime _and_ the public (potential crime-committers) should be made available to change or remove elements of society that lead to a crime and eventually remove the crime itself.

EDIT: as Christophe Cop first mentioned, removing some people from society is necessary. while these people can still learn, i still think that they don't need to be punished in order to do so. for further information to back up my belief please see this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Positive_and_negative_reinforcement

Topics: courts and cases ethics evolutionary psychology law laws moral psychology sociology
+5
Share:

Closing Statement from griffin tucker

i closed this idea early, simply because the amount and quality of feedback has led me to want to re-write the idea.

while many people demand justice by way of punishment, i believe the idea of punishment is not the best way to solve a re-occurring problem, but instead increases the likelihood of it happening again.

positive reinforcement simply works better than punishment in any case, but due to the current model of western society, there are certain restraints that mean there are more immediate demands at hand that require attention. so, other methods including punishment are used instead of positive reinforcement.

i believe social policy needs to be changed as a result.

according to the model of 'systematic evidence-based preventative social policy' (i think it needs a new name) it is what is proven to be working better than existing methods by means of already existing objective evidence.

in other words, if it works, and it's proven, the idea will be started. but this is not democracy.

currently, law-makers work on the assumption that if they don't get enough votes at the next election, they will lose their power to make laws - and since the easiest way to keep their power is to do whatever the majority says, this is what they have a tendancy to do.

law-makers react to popular opinion, but is popular opinion necessarily more correct or incorrect than evidence-based social policy? i don't know, myself.


thank-you all for your contributions.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • thumb

    Nikko Scelzo

    • +1
    Oct 8 2011: Well see ... the problem is not with punishment because punishment is meant to teach that something is wrong... teaching in its simplest form... through association... because that is how we learn... it is meant to associate these bad actions that people do with a place or action that people know as negative... though the punishment itself does not always fit because not everyone sees the same things as being negative... though i do agree with the fact that humans do not stop learning and people that do things in reaction to these "elements" as you call them...that lead up to specific events... people fail to make rational decisions based on a variety of elements... these elements relate to how they have interpreted the experiences of their life... what they have learned or... taken away from these experiences... those who commit crimes often do not learn certain basic lessons that are meant to be taught...( also to add onto the beginning part of what I said "punishment is meant to teach a lesson" I do also believe that there are other ways in which a lesson may be taught... some of which may be more effective and I believe that is possibly more so what you are trying to get at)
    • thumb

      griffin tucker 10+

      • 0
      Oct 8 2011: yes i am indeed trying to teach positive reinforcement instead of negative reinforcement.
      • thumb

        Nikko Scelzo

        • 0
        Oct 8 2011: After i posted about this last night i continued to think about it as i went to sleep... and i was thinking about how society could be better off if we all were raised the exact same way because that (besides from finding a way to link our thoughts) is the only way i can think of to eliminate the clarity issues.... but then this would mean we would all lose ...basically our personalities because i believe that they are a result of all of these factors of life...so its kind of (at least at the moment) and unavoidable issue : maybe thats why it hasn't been solved yet...

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.