Not quite, but that's where this post started.
There was an article in last week's New York Times magazine about a theory of criminal treatment which holds that the threat of punishment doesn't work if the criminal doesn't believe it'll actually happen. The theory basically says that for it to work, you have to target specifically whom you're going after ('the drug dealers at fourth and chestnut'), bring them in, and say 'if you don't stop, this is exactly what will happen to you. We know you by name, and the arrest warrants are already signed'). I kind of doubt that its as effective as they say, but, okay, its a step.
Which makes me wonder: would targeted efforts be effective in establishing bipartisanship? Not 'them damn Republicans', 'them dam Democrats', but this Congressman, on this part of this issue? Would that work in any way?
2 comments:
... how about with children?
Or Co parents?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......
This has possibilities.
Maybe I'll try it on my students this weekend at the seminar?
you know. IF they need threatening. lol
I believed for a long time in classic management solutions, things like Management by Objectives, Goal Oriented Management, and all that. After a while, I wondered how much of the results was not so much the theory as, simply, the Hawthorne Effect. So when I read this article, I had sort of the same doubts. Its like theories of child raising. Sometimes they work, I think, for completely different reasons than the proponents suggest. Doesn't mean don't try, but it does mean 'your mileage may vary'. There's more than one way to get where you want to be, and sometimes you have to go a different way based on the reason you're doing it or the person you're doing it with.
Post a Comment