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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page contention that the greater good can be achieved in regard to the reduction of criminal activity by utilizing the law. The author justifies this contention with the work of B.F. Skinner in operant conditioning. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPsocEng.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
To many social engineering refers to the philosophy of restricting individual liberties so that society can be
bettered in one way or another. Numerous philosophers have argued that the pursuit of the better good justifies such restrictions. B.F. Skinner, however, is perhaps the most notable.
He argued that such a pursuit for the better good was crucial to the survival of the species. Law, of course, provides one of the most formidable tools
for accomplishing such purposes. Laws stiffening the penalties for criminal acts would serve to outweigh the potential benefits of those acts with the potential punishment. When criminals finally
came to the recognition that crime did not pay societal betterment would be achieved. The trade-off of course, is the restriction of criminal liberties in favor of protecting non-criminal
liberties. If we were to utilize law in social engineering to reduce and individuals propensity to choose a life of crime we would
have many options to pursue. If we use Skinners work as a guideline it would be obvious that indeed the most logical of those options revolve around positive and
negative reinforcement. Skinner contended that an organisms behavior was the result of that behaviors consequences (Jensen and Burgess, 1997). This contention is also know as the Law of
Effect. In the Law of Effect positive effects serve to strengthen the stimulus/response connection while negative effects weaken that connection.
While Skinner utilized rats and pigeons to demonstrate his points, the law could be used quite effectively to achieve quite interesting effects on criminal activity.
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