1.5.10.3 Begging, Berating and Beating

Version 1.0 October 2022                             (Previous Version)

Traditional models of justice, at both societal and local levels, have been based on the notion of free will, in which the possibility that the behaviour may be caused is discounted.  Breaches of the rules are seen to be moral failures, due to a lack of will, rather than errors of judgement, or beyond our control.

If the so called bad behaviour is uncaused, but a result of a failure of will, then there can be no thought of finding the cause of the behaviour and addressing those causes.  The only response available is to address the failure of will.  Since the will is supposedly free, techniques to strengthen the will so that it does not fail, cannot be based on a scientific or social analysis: there can be no “science of free will�.  Some might say that sending people off to boot camp, or some strict, regimented, harsh training facility can focus the mind and buttress the will, but most of the time this will only be as effective as any other method that inflicts a similar amount of discomfort, inconvenience or pain.

When dealing with some offender, the only options most people see are:

·       to make various appeals to the person’s better nature;

·       to verbally scold them for their misbehavior or lack of consideration; and

·       to cause them to suffer so much that they won’t misbehave again. 

This we can call begging, berating or beating.

There is no reason to believe that this works, because free will is by definition uncaused, so how could begging, berating or beating cause it to change?

Despite not knowing the mechanistic details of how they works, we can see that these methods are at least partially effective.  We can plead with some people to change their ways, or refrain from a single act, and sometimes they do, but often they don’t.  Scolding or berating also sometimes works, but often doesn’t.  In the past various societies have increased the severity of punishments but found that crime still persists – perhaps because people are more desperate for food than frightened of the penalty (see examples in subsection 1.5.8.6).

The recidivism rate – the proportion of offenders who commit crimes again – is very high in many countries, especially those whose justice system is largely based on free will, morality and punishment.  Countries with low recidivism rates have a different way of treating offenders.

On the other hand, if we abandon the traditional model, including free will, moral failures, blame and punishment per se, we can adopt a model of justice that accepts determinism and indeterminism, causality or chaos.  If we do this then we can use scientific methods to explain what causes so called criminal behaviour and to work out how modify those causes so that the behaviour changes, via some intervention.  This is the subject matter of the study of Criminology.  Criminology considers psychology, psychiatry, sociology, behaviour management, and whatever else is relevant to the causes and prevention of criminal behaviour.