Simon Davies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Clare-Ann Fortune, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Karen Salmon, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Linda Fatialofa, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Evidence shows the links between punishment, discipline and behaviour change are weak at best. Good rehabilitation has a therapeutic focus – but this is less popular with politicians and the public.
Jennifer Montgomery, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Clive Aspin, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Care and protection residences are meant to help children with nowhere else to go. Instead, official reports show those kids are experiencing increased serious physical, sexual or emotional harm.
Only one of these guys deserves to be in timeout.
Wild Horse Photography/Moment via Getty Images
Mesopotamia’s prisons were built for detaining people, not punishing them. But they shaped powerful ideas about justice and reform that aren’t so different from today’s.
Former President Donald Trump has said he may pardon recently convicted leaders of the Proud Boys. Here, Proud Boys members protest in Salem, Ore., on Jan. 8, 2022.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / AFP via Getty Images
What people consider to be fair and just today are in line with the laws of ancient Mesopotamia and the Tang Dynasty in China – suggesting that these intuitions are part of human nature.
Convicted rapist Jayden Meyer was given a nine months home detention, sparking protests and an appeal from crown prosecutors. But the sentence is in line with the law. Is it time for change?
Members of book clubs can impose rules through penalties.
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People penalized for violating a group’s shared rules could go on to disrupt its functioning, out of revenge. Two scholars suggest a way of imposing rules.
Jaskirat Singh Sidhu arrives for his sentencing hearing in Melfort, Sask., in March 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis
Sidhu is not being deported as punishment. He is being removed because he has been positioned as a foreigner in Canada who has lost the privilege to remain.
For centuries, societies have used visions of the afterlife to discipline people’s behavior.
DEA / G. Nimatallah/De Agostini via Getty Images
Ancient Christian and Jewish texts threatened women with hellfire if they stepped out of line – and those terrifying visions still resonate in U.S. society today.
Kids who’ve had traumatic experiences are more likely to act out at school.
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Abuse, neglect or witnessing violence at home can lead kids to misbehave. Some schools are doing away with expulsions to focus on childhood trauma instead.
Infection rates of COVID-19 have soared among prisoners in the US. An expert on penal policy considers what is ‘unjust and disproportionate’ punishment at this time.
New research shows that Canadians who live in rural areas hold more punitive attitudes about crime and how to control it than their urban counterparts.
(Pixabay)
Those living in rural areas have more punitive attitudes toward crime and how to control it than city-dwellers, and it’s a major component of the growing urban-rural divide in Canada.
Kids have no problem remembering who plays fair.
Natalia Lebedinskaia/Shutterstock.com
Do children understand the lesson that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? Developmental psychologists suggest they’re more likely to punish bad behavior than they are to reward good deeds.
Which way does neurobiological evidence tip the scales in sentencing?
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How do jurors use different kinds of information about mental illness when making sentencing decisions? An experiment finds that neurobiological evidence could harm or help defendants.
Director, Asian Law Centre, Comparative Legal Studies Program; Associate Director, Vietnam; Director of Studies, Asian Law, The University of Melbourne