Criminal discussion.Bob Weyant provides a very illuminating discourse on our criminal justice system in "Criminal Behavior and the Ethics of Biological Intervention" (September/October 2005), but there was a nuance to the tradeoffs that I felt was missed. Weyant compares the behavior control implicit in Adj. 1. implicit in - in the nature of something though not readily apparent; "shortcomings inherent in our approach"; "an underlying meaning" underlying, inherent a prison stay--via restriction of liberty--to biological behavior control--via surgery, medication, and so forth. However, I think the real issue is the difference in long-term behavior modification behavior modification n. 1. The use of basic learning techniques, such as conditioning, biofeedback, reinforcement, or aversion therapy, to teach simple skills or alter undesirable behavior. 2. See behavior therapy. of the two approaches. Incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment. Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. under the present system puts prisoners in a system that operates by rules very different to those of the outside world (as heartbreakingly shown in other articles in the issue) and causes the inmate to be trained (modified for the long term) to cope in that environment, leaving them ill-prepared to function "outside" Is it more ethical to maladaptively modify a person purely by environmental factors without crossing the line of intruding on their biology, or to violate their personal biological boundaries in the hope of rehabilitating them for successful reentry reentry n. taking back possession and going into real property which one owns, particularly when a tenant has failed to pay rent or has abandoned the property, or possession has been restored to the owner by judgment in an unlawful detainer lawsuit. into society? Carlos Fuentes Noun 1. Carlos Fuentes - Mexican novelist (born in 1928) Fuentes Portland, Oregon |
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