Behavior Modification And Punishment Of The Innocent

While the philosophy of punishment is dominated by utilitarian and "mixed" theories, this study, written in the analytic tradition but also drawing on the views of Hegel, argues for a purely retributive view: all the main questions facing a theory of punishment are answered in terms of justice and desert, without any concessions to social expediency.

The Effects of Punishment on Human Behavior is a collection of essays that discusses the procedural and ethical issues of the use of electric shock as a treatment for severe behavior problems. The book presents the different types of extraneous aversives and undesirable side effects of punishment. It demonstrates the effectiveness of punishment procedures. The text describes the various aspects of punishment, as applied to human beings. It discusses the ethical and legal issues that challenge the use of punishment. Another topic of interest is the salient characteristics and influences affecting the success of overcorrection. The section that follows describes the types of punishment. The text also provides a conceptual and methodological analysis of a technique called “timeout. The book will provide valuable insights for psychologists, teachers, students, and researchers in the field of behavioral science.

This book argues for a mixed theory of legal punishment that treats both crime reduction and retribution as important aims of the state. A central question in the philosophy of law is why the state’s punishment of its own citizens is justified. Traditionally, two theories of punishment have dominated the field: consequentialism and retributivism. According to consequentialism, punishment is justified when it maximizes positive outcomes. According to retributivism, criminals should be punished because they deserve it. This book recognizes the strength of both positions. According to the two-tiered model, the institution of punishment and statutory penalties, as set by the legislature, are justified based on their costs and benefits, in terms of deterrence and rehabilitation. The law exists to preserve the public order. Criminal courts, by contrast, determine who is punished and how much based on what offenders deserve. The courts express the community’s collective sense of resentment at being wronged. This book supports the two-tiered model by showing that it accords with our moral intuitions, commonly held (compatibilist) theories of freedom, and assumptions about how the extent of our knowledge affects our obligations. It engages classic and contemporary work in the philosophy of law and explains the theory’s advantages over competing approaches from retributivists and other mixed theorists. The book also defends consequentialism against a longstanding objection that the social sciences give us little guidance regarding which policies to adopt. Drawing on recent criminological research, the two-tiered model can help us to address some of our most pressing social issues, including the death penalty, drug policy, and mass incarceration. This book will be of interest to philosophers, legal scholars, policymakers, and social scientists, especially criminologists, economists, and political scientists.

In this fascinating book, George Schedler offers fresh moral and legal perspectives on two legacies of the Civil War: the adoption of the Confederate battle flag by Southern states and the question of African American reparations. Schedler demonstrates that constitutional objections to Southern states' display of the battle flag are without merit, arguing that either the flag is not a racist symbol or there is a similar case for attaching racist significance to the stars and stripes. Drawing on scholarship of the Civil War and its aftermath, the author concludes that the Confederate battle flag can actually be seen as a multicultural symbol. Schedler's analysis of reparations focuses on the principle that whatever the enslaved would have earned and enjoyed had they not been enslaved should determine compensation. Highly original and thought-provoking, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of the Civil War, moral philosophy, and constitutional law.

Equality and Liberty: Analysing Rawls and Nozick is an indispensable source for those seriously interested in some rigorous assessments of the ideas of America's two most popular political philosophers. The essays in this volume cover a wide range of topics, some engaging each other in their analyses of particular Rawlsian or Nozickian themes. This collection of recent essays brings the student up-to-date concerning some of the more recent developments and assessments of Rawlsian and Nozickian ideas.