Mild Punishment Research Articles

Ibn Hazm on homosexuality: a case-study of Zahiri legal methodology

This article discusses the views of the teologian and legal scholar Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba (d. 456/1064) on homosexuality. Although reference is made to his literary work Ṭawq al-ḥamāma , which is rich in anecdotes on homoerotic attraction, the article focuses on Ibn Ḥazm's multivolume legal tract Kitāb al-Muḥallā , a work written from a Ẓāhirī, or literalist perspective. A step-by-step analysis of Ibn Hazm's legal reasoning on homosexuality, both male ( liwāṭ ) and female ( siḥāq ) is provided, and comparisons with the views of other jurist, especially Mālikis, are made. Unlike his Mālikī contemporaries, Ibn Ḥazm holds that homosexuality is not to be equated with fomication ( zinā ), which incurs the death penalty. Instead, he advocates a relatively mild punishment of up to ten lashes for homosexual practices, based upon his idiosyncratic interpretation of the revealed sources which is illustrated here. Although Ibn Ḥazm is believed by some modem authors to have had homosexual leanings himself, he categorically condemns sexual contacts between members of the same sex as immoral and sinful, and believes that homosexuals should be reformed.

A very reluctant mass murderer

War crime trials are seldom straight forward, but the case of the murder of seventy prisoners aboard the Japanese cruiser Tone during the Second World War had an unusual outcome. David Miller has highlighted the very unusual war crimes trial which took place in Hong Kong in 1947 and became known as the ‘Behar affair’. He argues that this case shows that a war crimes trial can be much less clear‐cut than is often considered to be the case. As the crime which took place on board the Tone was not discovered during the war, and the crew on board had no desire to boast about their involvement, the case only came to light when prisoners of war were released and questioned the whereabouts of their former shipmates. Only then did the investigation start. The case came before the court but despite the evidence that there were several members of the crew on board Tone immediately responsible for the 70 murders, the outcome of the trial shows’, surprisingly, that the admiral giving the orders was effectively seen as the man ultimately responsible and hanged, while the captain of the ship got a relatively mild punishment of seven years imprisonment.

Spanking and Triage

There is not much about corporal punishment in this article, but I understand that Dr Chamberlin argues, by omission, that spanking is only a bit player in the complex interplay of risks that threaten the future development of a child. A concerned society will do what it can broadly to increase the information and practical support available to families, which might prevent a variety of problems created or exacerbated by upbringing and experiences in childhood. One question for this meeting is: would the American Academy of Pediatrics be contributing to this broad mandate for prevention with a statement that focuses on spanking or other mild punishment, or does attention to a small problem draw attention from big problems that urgently need action? I agree with Dr Chamberlin's argument for providing comprehensive services to all members of a community rather than targeting high-risk groups, except that I think his goals impractical given limitations on public funds for social services. How should we spend the small amount of public money available for the welfare of children? Five to eight percent of all children have a temperamental problem with aggression; some 80% of boys growing up in poor, marginalized neighborhoods in US inner cities will be arrested for a violent crime before age 18. These data do not describe the same problem. We have heard several references in presentations here to the exceptional violence of US society and reports of studies that relate spanking to criminal violence in adulthood. Our cities do not have a patent on violence, and children everywhere deserve protection from abuse.

Condemnation to the Mines in the Later Roman Empire

Lactantius, in his shrill polemical pamphlet De mortibus persecutorum, made the following observation while attacking his principal adversary, the emperor Galerius: “There was no mild punishment with him, not islands, not mines, not prisons; but fire, the cross, and wild beasts were daily and ready at hand.” More than a sign of the times, it is also a measure of his fury that Galerius could make exile, hard labor, and imprisonment seem to be lenient sentences. While one must resist succumbing immediately to credulity, one also must admit that even such hyperbole may have a kernel of truth in it. Lactantius probably assumed—as did many others—that the myriad adjustments to the complex relations between the church and the empire, which were in the process of being engineered by Constantine and his associates, would eliminate the need to inflict such punishments on Christians for religious reasons.

Neuro-ophthalmology

Understanding animal emotions is an important scientific and ethical question but assessing emotional valence is still considered challenging. As the observation of lateralization (hemispheric asymmetries in structure and/or function) can provide insight into the underlying processes of the cognitive, physiological and behavioural components of emotions, it is a promising approach for studying them. The emotional valence hypothesis states that positive emotions are mostly processed by the left hemisphere, while negative emotions are mostly processed by the right hemisphere. Support for this hypothesis is still not conclusive; therefore, our study tested it in the context of visual laterality for viewing positive or negative emotionally conditioned stimuli. Ninety male piglets were either positively (food-reward) or negatively (mild punishment) conditioned to an object. Afterwards, the object was presented without the reinforcer under three different treatments: patch on the left or right eye (reducing input to the contralateral hemisphere) or patch between the eyes (the control). Monocular viewing had no clear effects on the negatively conditioned subjects. In contrast, in the positively conditioned group, covering the right eye caused a longer interruption of vocalization, a longer latency to touch the object, a shorter duration of exploring the arena and an increased vagal activity compared to the control. This suggests that reduced processing in the left hemisphere leads to heightened attention that is accompanied by a general orienting response, possibly resulting from a reduced positive appraisal. These findings therefore partially support the emotional valence hypothesis and suggest an important role of the left hemisphere in the quick recognition of a positive stimulus. This study demonstrated that investigating the lateralized processing of emotions can provide insight into the mechanisms of positive appraisal in animals.

Transgenerational patterns of abusive parenting: Analog and clinical tests

Two studies were conducted to determine whether there was an association between punitive childhood histories and abusive parenting. In the first experiment, undergraduate students who reported more punitive childhood histories and undergraduates who reported mild or nonpunishing childhoods were tested with an Analog Parenting Task. The task used photographic stimuli to depict child behaviors and to elicit disciplinary choices in response to children's transgressions. Persons from the more punitive backgrounds were significantly more likely to endorse potentially injurious disciplinary responses. Additionally, in a post-hoc analysis, women with mild punishment backgrounds were more likely to indicate they were annoyed by the depicted child behaviors than women with the severe punishment backgrounds and men with both punishment histories. In the second experiment, childhood histories of parents of children seen at a psychiatric clinic were assessed. The data indicated an association between severely punitive backgrounds of parents and the probability that the referred child had been physically abused. Also, the punishment histories of the parents were associated with the presence of antisocial and aggressive presenting problems displayed by the referred child. The two experiments together were considered to provide support for a modified version of the trans-generational hypothesis of abuse.

Behavior-genetic analysis of the paradise fish, Macropodus opercularis. II. Passive avoidance learning in inbred strains.

Passive dark avoidance conditioning was studied in four inbred strains of paradise fish in the presence and absence of a fish-like dummy during the training process. Strain differences were found in exploratory activity during habituation trials and also in the sensitivity to the mild electric shock punishment. The impact of the fish-like dummy also depended on the genotype.

Elimination of Self-Injurious Behaviour in an Autistic Child by use of Overcorrection

Mild punishment, overcorrection and reinforcement of an alternative behaviour were used to reduce and eliminate the incidence of severe self-injurious behaviour in an autistic 12-year-old boy who had sustained major damage to his wrists and fingers. Data were collected over 10 × 30-minute periods per day and showed that banging and touching of a protective cast and later the injured hand itself were reduced to zero in approximately three weeks. The injury had healed and self-injurious behaviour was still extinguished at 10-month follow-up.

Behavioral control of chronic hiccupping associated with gastrointestinal bleeding in a retarded epileptic male

A mild punishment procedure was used for reducing chronic hiccupping in a retarded epileptic male suffering from mild gastrointestinal bleeding. The procedure consisted of verbal reprimands plus moving a rubber tube up and down the patient's throat contingent on every occurence of hiccupping until gagging occurred. The procedure was effective in reducing the hiccupping from an average of 46.8 hr to an average of 10 min a week for a period of 88 weeks. The reduction of hiccupping was associated with a cessation of hematemesis and melena, and a general improvement of the patient's physical condition.

Overcorrection of pica in two profoundly retarded adults: analysis of setting effects, stimulus, and response generalization.

The effects of using brief, 15 min. overcorrection sessions to treat pica in two profoundly mentally retarded adults were assessed. With Subject A particular attention was paid to generalization with different trainers and generalization of the effects of overcorrecting earlier elements in the response chain. Subject B's treatment was examined across different treatment settings. The interaction of setting effects with generalization to different trainers was also probed. Both clients showed systematic decreases in pica during treatment sessions as a function of using overcorrection. Overcorrection, like other forms of mild punishment, appeared to result in generalization decrements when novel trainers were introduced. Overcorrection was more effective in a dayroom environment where reinforcing alternative social activities were more available than in a less stimulating classroom environment.

The Use of Mild Punishment in Combination with Reinforcement of Alternate Behaviors to Reduce the Self-Injurious Behavior of a Profoundly Retarded Individual

A procedure involving the response-contingent presentation of a mild aversive stimulus, reinforcement of alternative behaviors, and training for stimulus control was used to suppress self-injurious behavior of a profoundly retarded individual. This procedure, implemented by several people in varied settings throughout the entire school day, produced an immediate and substantial suppression effect in the training environments. Examination of school records and extensive staff interviewing indicates that the suppression effect generalized from the training environments to the hospital living area. In addition, it was durable in both the training and nontraining settings over an 8-month interval, although 20 months after treatment termination, a large portion of the generalized suppression effect in the nontraining environment was reversed. Possible explanations for this phenomenon are presented. These records and interviews also indicate that the inhibition factor of self-injurious responding was not associated with increases in existing stereotypic behavior or the development of new stereotypic behaviors. The public school personnel who conducted the program were completely trained in one school day without disruption to their normal activities.

Effects of contingent social reinforcement with delusional chronic schizophrenic men.

4 male, chronic schizophrenic inpatients were subjects in an experiment aimed at investigating whether contingent verbal reinforcement could decrease delusional verbalizations. The reinforcement connoted both approval and mild punishment, and two different schedules of reinforcement, fixed and variable ratios, were employed. A significant conditioning effect was observed, but neither fixed ratio nor variable ratio was successful in providing resistance to extinction. Results were discussed in the light of the immediacy hypothesis which suggests that immediate stimuli govern the behavior of schizophrenics.

Behavioral Treatment of Psychosis

In 1959 Ayllon and Michael published a study on the psychiatric nurse showing that contingent positive reinforcement, extinction, and mild punishment were effective in modifying maladaptive behaviors of psychotic patients. Four priority areas for the treatment of the chronic mental patient are resocialization, instrumental role performance, reduction or elimination of extreme behavior, and the presence of at least one supportive person in the community.

A Simple Procedure for Training and Maintenance of Proper Mealtime Behaviour in Severely Retarded Children

SummaryFour severely/profoundly mentally-retarded girls were trained to use acceptable mealtime behaviours after as little as ten days' training. The training procedure consisted of a combination of mild punishment and physical restraint applied to inappropriate behaviours. Training resulted in a rapid increase in the proportion of appropriate mealtime behaviours to a level close to unity. Follow-up observation at ten-day intervals showed no reduction in appropriate behaviours under a simple maintenance procedure.

Aversion treatment of headbanging in a normal adult

A case of headbanging in a 23-yr-old male, normal in all other respects, was treated by the application of a mild punishment contingency. Interruption of recorded music or an alarm were chosen as the aversive stimuli. A simple piece of apparatus meant that the contingencies could be self imposed by the patient at home. The undesired behavior was removed over a 45-day period. At follow-up improvement was maintained.

Behavioral compliance and devaluation of the forbidden object as a function of probability of detection and severity of threat.

This experiment was devised to test the prediction derived from cognitive dissonance theory that mild threats are more effective than severe threats in obtaining internalization of prohibitions. Previous research had revealed more devaluation of the forbidden object under mild threat, but obtained 100% behavioral compliance both under mild and severe threat. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) Mild threats lead to higher behavioral compliance both under high and low probability of detection, whereas severe threats lead to high compliance only under high probability of detection. (2) Highest devaluation of the forbidden object occurs under low probability of detection and mild threat, lowest devaluation occurs under high probability of detection and severe threat, and intermediate devaluation occurs under the other two conditions. The results were opposite to those predicted, but are of interest as a cross-cultural disconfirmation of hypotheses derived from cognitive dissonance theory. Both common sense and learning theory suggest that large rewards should be more effective than smaller rewards, and that severe punishment should be more effective than mild punishment. However, dissonance theory has considerably shaken this belief. Aronson and Carlsmith (1963), for instance, have shown that children show higher devaluation of a forbidden toy under conditions of mild threat than under severe threat. These results are explained by dissonance theory as follows: The cognition that one has refrained from playing with a toy is dissonant with the cognition that the toy is very attractive. Under severe threat of punishment the child has sufficient justification for not playing with the toy, but under mild threat the justification is insufficient; therefore, the child reduces dissonance by deval1 This study was supported by a grant from the American Psychological Foundation to the first author.

Learning to resist mild or intense shock punishment and subsequent resistance to airblast punishment

Rats were trained to approach and consume food in the presence of either mild, intense, or no shock punishment and were subsequently tested with airblast punishment. The results showed that Ss learning to resist the intense shock punishment subsequently were significantly (p <.05) more resistant to airblast punishment than the mild punishment or the no punishment training groups. The difference between the mild and no punishment groups was not reliable.

Automatic Audiometer Coupled to a Data-Acquisition System for Animal Use

A simple, programmed shock-avoidance procedure is described for conditioning squirrel monkeys to track MAF or MAP thresholds. The method requires the animal to press a lever within 3 sec of tone onset to avoid mild shock punishment. Successful or unsuccessful responses control the increase or decrease step of a recording attenuator. Analog-to-digital conversion of recorder pen position is made with an add-subtract stepper in parallel with the recording attenuator. Coding is done through a diode matrix, and the value on each trial is punched into eight-channel paper tape. Arithmetic means and standard deviations are computed off line. The method permits test sessions up to 8 h in duration and is unaffected by appetitive variables associated with food or water rewards. Examples are given of tracked thresholds under normal and selected experimental conditions. [Work supported in part by National Institutes of Health.]

Noninstrumental punishment and shock intensity in observational learning.

It was hypothesized that direct negative reinforcement to observers, solely contingent upon errors in a model's behavior, would facilitate or interfere with the observer's subsequent efforts to learn the task as a function of intensity of punishment (electric shock). 80 Ss were run in a factorial design varying shock intensity, the number of model errors and shock contingency. The task was a complex temporal maze which explicitly required the learning of a series of correct switch selections and implicitly required avoidance of punished switches. The findings indicated that relatively severe noninstrumental punishment disrupted vicarious acquisition of the task insofar as avoidance of punished decisions was concerned. The effects were independent of whether the shock was contingent or noncontingent. Marginal support was found for the contention that mild punishment would facilitate performance beyond the level to which no punishment would influence performance.

Suppression of running times by olfactory stimuli

Thirsty rats running a straight-way for water were exposed to the odor of rats which had received foot-shock, a perfumed spray deodorant, and the essence of cat. Running times of Ss increased when they first encountered each of the odors. The odor of cat was particularly effective in suppressing Ss’ approach. The first encounter with the odors seemed to function as a mild punishment. Control for odors such as those left by rats which have received foot-shock may be important in many experimental situations.