Mild Punishment Research Articles

ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES TO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT USED BY SELECTED BASIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN MAMPONG MUNICIPALITY, GHANA

This study was conducted to determine the alternative strategies to corporal punishment used by some basic school teachers in Mampong Municipality in the wake of the abolition of corporal punishment in Ghanaian schools. The study used a qualitative research approach and phenomenological research design to study 15 basic school teachers and 15 headteachers who were purposively sampled for the study. Interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data. It was found that the teachers used positive discipline strategies, such as rule setting, rewards presentation, guidance and counselling and mild punishment strategies, such as task assignment, withdrawal from pleasant activity and upstanding as alternative strategies to corporal punishment. This implies that the teachers follow the recommended discipline policy of the Ghana Education Service (GES). It was recommended, among others, that continuous professional education should be conducted by GES for the teachers to keep them abreast of the use of alternative strategies.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0704/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Teachers' Punishment Intensity and Student Observer Trust: A Moderated Mediation Model.

During social interactions, people decide whether to trust an actor based on their punitive behaviour. Several empirical studies have indicated that punishment intensity impacts observer trust, yet the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. This study included 242 junior high school students and was conducted to investigate the relationship between teachers' punishment intensity and levels of student bystander trust. Additionally, the mediating role of trustworthiness and the moderating role of group relationships were explored. The results showed that the relationship between punishment intensity and observer trust follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. In addition, mild punishment boosts observer trust by improving perceived trustworthiness (ability and integrity) compared to no punishment, while harsh punishment reduces observer trust more than mild punishment by diminishing perceived trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity). More importantly, group relationships positively moderate the relationship between punishment intensity and observer trust. Specifically, compared to mild or no punishment, harsh punishment decreases trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) in close teacher-student relationships but has less impact on neutral relationships. The above findings demonstrate that guiding educators in developing appropriate disciplinary concepts contributes to enhancing student observer trust.

Should parents combine reasoning with firm control to nurture adolescent socialization? Comparing logical consequences with mild punishments.

Should parents combine reasoning with firm control to nurture adolescent socialization? Comparing logical consequences with mild punishments.

Problems of sanctioning economic environmental crime in the Czech Republic

The article deals with economic environmental crime, i.e. those illegal attacks on the environment that are perceived as the most serious. Using the example of the Czech Republic, a post-communist state in Eastern Europe that joined the European Union, the main problems associated with its criminal prosecution are presented. As a result of the analysis, the key factors of insufficient prosecution of economic environmental crime are identified, i.e. in particular high latency, low clearance of registered suspicions, mild punishment and ineffectiveness of criminal repression against corporations. In conclusion, proposals are made for certain measures, both in terms of legislation and application practice, which would positively influence the above factors.

The Application of Relative Non-Prosecution Right under the System of Acquiring Criminals and Giving Them Mild Punishment

The Application of Relative Non-Prosecution Right under the System of Acquiring Criminals and Giving Them Mild Punishment

East-West differences in experienced corporal punishment: Results of a representative German study

Due to the division of Germany into the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany following the Second World War, large parts of the population of today's Germany were socialized under different socio-economic, political, and legal conditions, which could possibly lead to different experiences with corporal punishment as a method of education. In this paper, we investigate whether being socialized in East or West Germany, respectively, had an influence on childhood experience of corporal punishment. The evaluation is based on a representative German survey (n = 2331) carried out in 2020. In order to investigate the dimensionality of the experience with corporal punishment, we used the method of multiple correspondence analysis. The structures which were discovered using multiple correspondence analysis were subsequently verified using confirmatory factor analyses. We then examined the influence of explanatory variables on different parental punishment styles in a structural equation model. Three main parental punishment styles were identified: non-corporal punishment, mild punishment, and severe punishment. Respondents who were socialized in East Germany had a lower probability of having experienced severe punishment and non-corporal punishment compared to those socialized in West Germany. Our analysis also showed that corporal punishment tended to be more frequently practiced by younger mothers and older fathers. The results of this study indicate that legal regulations regarding non-violent child-raising are not just symbolic, but do indeed have a measurable influence on the educational methods of parents.

The evolution of cooperation in voluntary public goods game with shared-punishment

A large number of theoretical and experimental studies have shown that punishment and voluntary participation can promote cooperation, which offers an explanation for the emergence of cooperation. In this paper, individuals can freely choose whether to participate in the public goods game, and cooperators perform both cooperation and punishment. On the one hand, cooperators invest in public goods, and on the other hand, they punish the defectors and share the cost of punishment. Furthermore, considering the impact of population structure, we investigate the evolution of cooperation in well-mixed populations with the replicator dynamics and structured populations with the Fermi update rule, respectively. Our results indicate that the evolution of cooperation is obviously different between the two populations. In well-mixed populations, the voluntary participation mechanism prevents defection from becoming an evolutionary stable strategy. When the fine is low, the strategy of non-participation will be the only evolutionary stable strategy. With the increase of the fine, both cooperation and non-participation will be the evolutionary stable strategies. When the fine is high, cooperation will become the only evolutionary stable strategy. In structured populations, cooperators, defectors and loners can coexist under mild punishment, which means that population structure is favorable to the emergence of cooperation. However, cooperators occupy the population with higher fine threshold compared to well-mixed populations, which indicates that population structure is not always favorable to the evolution of cooperation.

A new stage of humanization of the criminal-legal impact regarding the application of punishment in the type of life imprisonment: the problem of correspondence.

The scientific article explores a new stage of humanization of the criminal-legal influence on the application of punishment in the form of life imprisonment. It has been established that a number of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights served as a prerequisite for this process, which generally stated the absence of a mechanism for early release of convicts from serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Ukraine, which would allow the educational purpose of this punishment to be realized. Attention is focused on the fact that the European Court of Human Rights does not oblige the state to provide specific forms of early release from serving a sentence of life imprisonment. At the same time, it is emphasized that this process should be legally defined, transparent and provide the person sentenced to life imprisonment with the "right to hope". An inconsistency was established in the text of the motivational and operative parts of the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine dated September 16, 2021 No. 6-р (II)/2021 (case on review of the sentence of a person sentenced to life imprisonment) in the part of determining the types of early release from serving a sentence in life imprisonment. In the decisive part of the decision, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine obliged the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to introduce two independent, independent measures of a criminal law nature - the replacement of the punishment in the form of life imprisonment with a milder punishment and conditional early release from serving the punishment in the form of life imprisonment will. The article focuses attention on the need to observe the reasonableness and justice of criminal law influence in the process of humanizing life imprisonment. It is argued that excessive humanization of life imprisonment may lead to a decrease in the protective function of criminal legislation and the ability to prevent new criminal offenses. It was concluded that in the conditions of martial law there is an increase in the number of crimes punishable by life imprisonment. The position is expressed that it should be recognized as socially determined to introduce the replacement of punishment in the form of life imprisonment with a milder one and subsequent conditional early release from serving the prescribed sentence, if the convicted person corrects himself and shows his readiness for further resocialization.

Novelty during rearing increased inquisitive exploration but was not related to early ranging behavior of laying hens

Range use by free-range laying hen flocks is heterogeneous. We hypothesized that ranging behaviour may be motivated by curiosity and thwarted by fearfulness. This project aimed to increase a hen’s motivation to explore by enriching the rearing environment and identify relationships between exploration, fear and ranging. Day-old Hy-Line chicks (n = 1700) were reared in environments that provided novel items, structures for perching or an industry standard floor rearing environment. Prior to range access, fear and exploratory behaviors were assessed at 18 weeks of age (cohort 1; n = 30 hens/treatment) via novel arena and novel object tests and at 22 weeks of age (cohort 2; n = 30 hens/treatment) using an 8-arm radial maze choice paradigm adapted from previous rodent research. Hens were trained to expect success in two arms (reward) and failure in two arms (mild punishment), the remaining four arms (ambiguous arms) were not available during training. After training, all hens were retested for 8 minutes with access to the four familiar arms only, then for four minutes with access to the ambiguous arms for the first time, in addition to the success and failure arms. Latency to enter the ambiguous arms and the number of ambiguous arms entered were assessed as an indicator of a hen’s willingness to forgo reward and risk punishment to explore a novel area. At 25 weeks of age, hens were provided with range access and individual range access was monitored for three weeks. Latency to access the range and the number of days the range was accessed was not related to rearing treatment (p > 0.05) and was only weakly correlated with behavior during the novel arena, novel object and 8-arm radial maze tests (r < 0.3). However, hens reared in the novelty rearing environment were more willing to forgo reward to explore the ambiguous arms than hens reared in the control environment (p = 0.004). We did not identify strong evidence that exploration or fearfulness was related to early ranging behavior. However, we show that motivation to explore increases when hens are reared in an enriched environment.

Is the punishment imposed on women for committing intentional crimes consistent with the principle of justice?

The article considers the question of compliance with the principle of justice of the punishment imposed on women for committing, first, intentional crimes. The purpose of the study is to identify the causes and conditions that contribute to the fact that the court imposes a milder punishment on female persons than on male persons, thereby showing not only humanity, but also leniency. The main scientific methods for the study were chosen analysis of the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, analysis of the judicial practice of courts of general jurisdiction based on the results of consideration of criminal cases. The positions of domestic and foreign scientists who had previously considered similar aspects in their works were studied. During the study, it was found that the courts resort to mitigation of punishment since women have dependent young children, and the very fact of their presence is also a mitigating circumstance. But at the same time, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not consider such an important factor as the maintenance and upbringing of a minor child, which, in the author’s opinion, is necessary and important. Since it is necessary to exclude cases of leniency to those who are not engaged in the development and upbringing of their children. The problem is also those cases when the court appoints, in the opinion of the author, a mild punishment for crimes committed with extreme cruelty, sadism and bullying. This can only give rise to impunity and permissiveness among women, which in the future will lead to grave consequences for the institution of the family, society and the state. In general, such a humane approach for women goes against the principle of justice and even the principle of equality of citizens before the law. The author summarizes the need to make appropriate changes to the Criminal legislation of the Russian Federation to bring the norms of criminal law in accordance with the principle of justice and to prevent new crimes.

Euthanasia: Domestic and Foreign Experience of Legal Regulation

The article discusses various approaches to the premature discontinuing of the life of a terminally ill patient both at the state and international level. The purpose of this study is to revise the previously established approach to the use of euthanasia in the Russian Federation. A different view of the use of euthanasia is necessary, among other things, because in some cases, only the premature termination of a person's life may be the only way to end his suffering from a vain struggle with an incurable disease. The difficulties associated with the use of the euthanasia procedure over a long time period are a topic of discussion for many scientists. The relevance of this topic is emphasized by the rapidly changing views on the possibility of using euthanasia from an ethical point of view. More and more international organizations are expressing their own views on euthanasia and assisted suicide. As for the legal order of individual states, there is a tendency to use one of three approaches to ending the suffering of a patient by causing death: the first approach is characterized by a prohibition on the use of euthanasia under the threat of criminal punishment and qualifying such an act as murder in the absence of a special corpus delicti; in the second approach, euthanasia is also a criminal offense, however, the criminal law of states using this approach establishes a special offense that provides for a milder punishment than murder; in the third approach, the law provides for the right to use euthanasia. The article provides a comparative analysis of the euthanasia procedure used in Belgium and the assisted suicide procedure used in Switzerland. In addition, the point of view of the European Court of Human Rights on the issues under consideration is given. The main research method is the analysis of scientific literature on the research topic, the analysis of normative acts of domestic and foreign legislation, a comparative analysis of the legal order of states that carry out various approaches to the application of the euthanasia procedure.

Forbidden Transactions and Black Markets

Repugnant transactions are sometimes banned, but legal bans sometimes give rise to active black markets that are difficult if not impossible to extinguish. We explore a model in which the probability of extinguishing a black market depends on the extent to which its transactions are regarded as repugnant as measured by the proportion of the population that disapproves of them and the intensity of that repugnance as measured by willingness to punish. Sufficiently repugnant markets can be extinguished with even mild punishments, whereas others are insufficiently repugnant for this and become exponentially more difficult to extinguish the larger they become and the longer they survive.

Talking punishment: How victim perceptions of punishment change when they communicate with offenders

The myth that restorative justice is the opposite of retributive justice persists, despite a long history of rhetorical challenges. Only empirical evidence can advance the debate, so this article investigates the relationship between punishment and victim–offender communication from the victim’s perspective. Interviews with 40 victims of crime established that some victims saw victim–offender communication and punishment as alternatives, and others saw them as independent. However, more than half the participants expected that communicating with the offender would increase their satisfaction with the offender’s punishment or reported afterwards that this was in fact the case, suggesting that some victims fulfil punishment objectives through communication with the offender. The changes occurred when victims received information about the offender’s punishment, received feedback from the offender or used communication with the offender to impose a mild punishment of their own. Victims were not excessively punitive, but this study demonstrates the existence of an association between punishment and victim–offender communication from at least some victims’ perspectives. This article argues that we should not ignore or attempt to eliminate this relationship. Rather, acknowledging and examining the existence of punishment within victim–offender communication would improve practice and generate better outcomes for victims, offenders and society.

ПРАВОВИЙ АНАЛІЗ ЗАКОНОПРОЄКТНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ З УДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ МЕХАНІЗМУ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ ДОВІЧНОГО ПОЗБАВЛЕННЯ ВОЛІ В УКРАЇН

Legal analysis of bills aimed at improving the mechanism of application of life imprisonment in Ukraine, namely: “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts Implementing Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights” № 4048 and “On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine on the execution of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights” № 4049 is provided in the article. It is determined that the mechanism of parole in the form of life imprisonment proposed by these bills consists of two stages: the first stage is the replacement of life imprisonment with a milder punishment under the rules of the new version of Article 82 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; the second stage is conditional early release from serving a sentence in the form of imprisonment, which is assigned to a convict in order to replace life sentence with a milder punishment (imprisonment) under the rules of a new version of Article 81 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The legal positions of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration with the European Union, the Main Scientific and Expert Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the expert assessment of the Council of Europe are analyzed. The generalized legal analysis of bills 4048, 4049 gave an opportunity to reveal their progressive provisions, as well as shortcomings. Progressive provisions of the bills include: convicts’ drawing up their personal plan for reintegration into society, a temporary restriction on re-applying for the replacement of life sentence with imprisonment for a definite term or a request for a parole. The shortcomings of the bills include: unjustifiably short minimum sentence that a convict must serve in order to be released from life sentence; lack of a mechanism for determining the risk assessment of those sentenced to life imprisonment; lack of legislation to provide for probation in the process of replacing life sentence with a milder sentence and parole in terms of risk assessment, reintegration plan and monitoring compliance with court obligations; lack of criteria for determining the risk of re-offending; implementation of administrative supervision by police bodies over persons released on parole; lack of clear content of the reintegration plan; providing conclusions of the administration of a penal institution on convict’s preparing for release. Key words: bill 4048, bill 4049, life sentence, parole, European standards, implementation.

The socializing role of the problem-constraint link: A multimethod investigation

Experimental studies on parent-youth disagreements have revealed the potential socialization advantages of favoring parental constraints with strong problem-constraint links (i.e., logical consequences) over constraints with weak problem-constraint links (e.g., mild punishments). In this study, we extended this line of research by examining the relation between youth perceptions of their parents' actual usage of constraints during disagreements and indicators of compliance and internalization. A total of 437 adolescents (Mage = 15.90; 53% female) completed a cross-sectional questionnaire on global parent-youth disagreements, while a subsample of 179 adolescents also completed daily diaries of situational parent-youth disagreements. Results replicated and extended those of past studies. In both designs, constraints with stronger problem-constraint links were, overall, related to higher scores on indicators of compliance and internalization. These relations were not moderated by age. Noteworthy relations were also found between covariates (e.g., harshness, autonomy-support) and outcomes. A two-step procedure to identify logical consequences is presented.

Differentiation of criminal liability for various forms of high treason

The article is devoted to the differentiation of criminal liability for various forms of treason. Using the experience of Ukraineafter the occupation of its territories by the Russian Federation in 2014 and legal doctrine, analyzed some forms of crime under Art. 111of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.Such forms of treason are considered as: 1) transition to the side of the enemy in a state of martial law or during an armed conflict;2) espionage; 3) providing assistance to a foreign state, foreign organization or their representatives in carrying out subversive activitiesagainst Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the statistics of convictions for treason and the actual number of servicemen, lawenforcement officers, judges, and civil servants who have sided with the enemy differ significantly. Difficulties and contradictions inlaw enforcement are revealed, ways of their elimination are offered.Based on the study of each of the forms of treason, the responsibility for which is provided by Art. 111 of the Criminal Code ofUkraine, revealed a significant difference in the degree of public danger of such acts. Analysis of the practice of national courts also showsthat for this crime under Art. 69 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine often imposed a milder punishment than provided by law. Ta king intoaccount the above, as well as the experience of the legislation of states such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, it is proposed to providein a separate article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to allocate such a form of treason as providing assistance to a foreign state, foreignorganization or their representatives. According to the author, this act should be defined as a not particularly serious crime, which shouldbe punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years. This will avoid the unjustified severity of the criminal law, and in the event of a politicaldecision to reintegrate the occupied territories, apply amnesty to those who will be prosecuted for such a crime after the conviction.

Repeated Multimarket Contact with Private Monitoring: A Belief-Free Approach

This paper studies repeated games where two players play multiple duopolistic games simultaneously (multimarket contact). A key assumption is that each player receives a noisy and private signal about the other's actions (private monitoring or observation errors). There has been no game-theoretic support that multimarket contact facilitates collusion or not, in the sense that more collusive equilibria in terms of per-market profits exist than those under a benchmark case of one market. An equilibrium candidate under the benchmark case is belief-free strategies. We are the first to construct a non-trivial class of strategies that exhibits the effect of multimarket contact from the perspectives of simplicity and mild punishment. Strategies must be simple because firms in a cartel must coordinate each other with no communication. Punishment must be mild to an extent that it does not hurt even the minimum required profits in the cartel. We thus focus on two-state automaton strategies such that the players are cooperative in at least one market even when he or she punishes a traitor. Furthermore, we identify an additional condition (partial indifference), under which the collusive equilibrium yields the optimal payoff.

The role of logical consequences in adolescents’ cognitive precursors of compliance and internalization

It is well established that parents’ responses to adolescents’ transgressions play a role in adolescents’ future compliance and internalization process. However, research has yet to reach a consensus on the effectiveness of several specific authority exertion strategies. One of these strategies, which theoretically holds the potential to foster both compliance and internalization, is parental use of logical consequences. Using an experimental vignette methodology and a sample of 214 adolescents (Mage = 15.28 years), the current study compared the effects of logical consequences with classical authority exertion strategies (mild punishments, reasoning, and no authority exertion). Results showed that adolescents held favorable perceptions regarding logical consequences; they rated logical consequences as the most acceptable and, on an equal footing with mild punishments, the most effective strategy to elicit future compliance. Furthermore, whereas older adolescents did not generally anticipate that their reasons to comply would vary as a function of parents’ choice of authority exertion strategies, younger adolescents anticipated that they would comply for more well-internalized reasons in response to logical consequences compared with mild punishments. Implications of these findings for the promotion of optimal parenting and future research directions are discussed.

The Role of Logical Consequences and Autonomy Support in Children’s Anticipated Reactions of Anger and Empathy

Authority exertion in rule-breaking contexts represents both a considerable challenge and a unique opportunity for parents to foster their children’s internalization process (i.e., children’s process of understanding and abiding to the importance of various rules and their underlying values). In this study, we investigated the effects of two interpersonal rule-reminding climates (autonomy-supportive vs. controlling) and two constraint strategies (logical consequences vs. mild punishments) on two emotional precursors of internalization (empathy and anger). We also extended findings from a past study by looking at the association between these two emotions and children’s acceptability beliefs regarding authority strategies. 221 children (Mage = 10.42) read hypothetical rule-breaking scenarios, indicated their anticipated reactions in terms of anger and empathy, and rated the acceptability of the exerted authority strategies. Autonomy-supportive climates and logical consequences elicited less anger and more empathy than respectively controlling climates and mild punishments. This emotional pattern was in turn associated with greater acceptability beliefs. Finally, significant indirect links from interpersonal climates and constraint strategies to acceptability beliefs, via anticipated emotions, were observed. These results highlight the potential relevance of using logical consequences in an autonomy-supportive climate, as this combination of strategies seems more effective in promoting emotional precursors of children’s internalization process.

The socializing role of logical consequences, mild punishments, and reasoning in rule‐breaking contexts involving multifaceted issues

AbstractExperimental studies focusing on the socialization role of parental authority exertion in persistent rule‐breaking contexts involving non‐personal issues have recently shown the advantages of using logical consequences over alternative strategies (mild punishments, reasoning, and no‐authority). Using an experimental vignette approach and a sample of 214 adolescents (Mage = 15.28 years), the present study extended these findings by comparing the same parental interventions in a rule‐breaking setting involving a multifaceted issue. Specifically, and based on research anchored in social domain theory, we evaluated how adolescents' perceptions of the issue underlying the multifaceted transgression (personal vs. non‐personal) moderated the effects of authority exertion strategies on socialization indicators. When adolescents perceived the transgression as a non‐personal issue, past results were replicated and enhanced. Adolescents rated the logical consequence as at least as effective as the mild punishment to prevent future transgressions (i.e., more so than reasoning and no‐authority) and as the most acceptable strategy. Furthermore, contrary to the mild punishment, they did not perceive the logical consequence as more autonomy‐thwarting than reasoning. In contrast, adolescents who categorized the transgression as a personal matter rated the logical consequence less favorably, leaving reasoning as a preferred form of intervention. Implications for optimal parenting are discussed.