Does Punishment Really Work?

I have always been interested in the question of what inspires people to be their best. Why do some people have a tendency towards violence or addiction or cruelty? Why are there people that only seem to care about themselves?   And what makes someone spend their entire life dedicated to serving others?

America is a punitive society and has grown increasingly more so in my lifetime. Our prison population has had about a 8.5x increase since 1980!   We have the 2^nd highest per-capita incarceration rates in the world.   Most prisoners are not violent when they go into prison, and are at higher risk for deviant behavior when they leave.

Parents and teachers also struggle these days with difficult children who are disrespectful , argumentative or uncooperative. The default approach stems from the belief that punishment is a deterrent.

But is punishment really an effective deterrent?

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