The researcher aimed to investigate the laws and policies regulating the use of corporal punishment in Swaziland schools by benchmarking these against HRL, and to investigate the non-compliance of selected schools in the Hhohho and Manzini regions with these legal prescripts. This was done in the two participating schools in the study. The study employed the qualitative approach, using two cases to source the information from the participants. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the data from the participants. The principals and their deputies were interviewed, whilst the teachers and learners responded to questionnaires. The literature review revealed that the teachers tend not to adhere to the prescripts in respect of the abuse of corporal punishment. The literature review focusing on the Swaziland situation brought to light that the teachers go beyond the legal prescripts when administering corporal punishment. The results indicated that in Swaziland corporal punishment is legal while, according to the Human Rights Law, it is a crime. The study indicated that teachers do not adhere to the legal prescripts on corporal punishment. Of the ten requirements for corporal punishment, the teachers complied fully with only two. It was also found that the teachers were not conversant with the legal prescripts. Some of the requirements did not seem viable to them to comply with. The researcher recommended that the Swaziland Constitution be aligned with the Human Rights Law, and that principals monitor the abuse of corporal punishment. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Many aspects of capital punishment have been debated extensively, such as its legality and cruelty. One such aspect is the role a defendant's mental functioning should play in the proceedings. In recent years the Supreme Court has barred the mentally retarded and juveniles from the death penalty due to their cognitive limitations and problems with behavioral control (Slobogin, 2003). This reasoning has prompted many in the fields of mental health and law to advocate for a similar bar for offenders with severe mental illness since their impairments create similar problems in judgment and behavioral control. The Supreme Court cited public consensus as its grounds in banning the mentally retarded and juveniles from sentences of death; however, public consensus on mentally ill capital offenders is not quite as clear. Few attempts have gauged public opinion on sentencing severely mentally ill offenders to death, and the little research that does exist has produced conflicting results. While polls show that Americans oppose the death penalty for the severely mental ill (Gallup, 2008), the literature shows that jurors are more likely to sentence these defendants to death (Charlotte School of Law [CSL], 2006). Second to the issue of barring the severely mentally ill from the death penalty is the issue of what mental health factors would be considered severe enough to qualify for a bar. There has been no previous research to gauge public opinion on these issues. Surveys were constructed to gauge opinion on the issue and were mailed randomly to 1,640 people throughout the United States. A total of 202 surveys were returned completed. Support was found for a bar from the death penalty for the mentally ill. However, the mental health factors that should comprise a bar received varied support and were less clear in determining which should comprise a bar. When given alternatives to a death sentence, participants overwhelmingly chose some type of life sentence. Public opinion appears to be an important aspect in the imposition of capital punishment upon the mentally ill.

The reward positivity is a component of the human event-related brain potential (ERP) elicited by feedback stimuli in trial-and-error learning and guessing tasks. A prominent theory holds that the reward positivity reflects a reward prediction error that is differentially sensitive to the valence of the outcomes, namely, larger for unexpected positive events relative to unexpected negative events (Holroyd & Coles, 2002). Although the theory has found substantial empirical support, most of these studies have utilized either monetary or performance feedback to test the hypothesis. However, in apparent contradiction to the theory, a recent study found that unexpected physical punishments (a shock to the finger) also elicit the reward positivity (Talmi, Atkinson, & El-Deredy, 2013). Accordingly, these investigators argued that this ERP component reflects a salience prediction error rather than a reward prediction error. To investigate this finding further, I adapted the task paradigm by Talmi and colleagues to a more standard guessing task often used to investigate the reward positivity. Participants navigated a virtual T-maze and received feedback on each trial under two conditions. In a reward condition the feedback indicated that they would either receive a monetary reward or not for their performance on that trial. In a punishment condition the feedback indicated that they would receive a small shock or not at the end of the trial. I found that the feedback stimuli elicited a typical reward positivity in the reward condition and an apparently delayed reward positivity in the punishment condition. Importantly, this signal was more positive to the stimuli that predicted the omission of a possible punishment relative to stimuli that predicted a forthcoming punishment, which is inconsistent with the salience hypothesis. / Graduate / 0633 / 0317 / heydari@uvic.ca

No description available.

A disturbing average of 600 Palestinian children are prosecuted by Israeli military courts every year. Three fourths of the children experience some form of physical violence during their arrest, interrogation, and/or detention. On the contrary, Jewish Israeli children never face the brutality of a military court system with a 99.74% conviction rate of Palestinian minors. The aim of this thesis is to examine the “legal” systems responsible for discriminatorily incarcerating an average of 200 children in military jails on a monthly basis. Central questions to my thesis ask: is this behavior legal and legitimate by Israeli legal standards? Can the same be said about the standards set by international law? What defines and distinguishes a legal system? Finally, how should we punish children, if at all? This thesis argues there is a severe lack of legality and legitimacy behind Israel’s rampant and unrestricted incarceration of Palestinian minors, be it by Israeli or international measures.

Whilst studies on capital punishment in Japan have been conducted by various scholars from various perspectives, empirical research on the de facto moratorium period is largely unavailable. This thesis aims to investigate how consistently the Japanese government justified capital punishment during the execution-free period from 1989 to 1993. Its primary goal is to throw light on the elite-driven nature of the capital punishment system where important decisions are made within the closed institutional dynamic, often irrespective of domestic or international factors. It will also highlight that capital punishment policy has been dealt with by the Japanese government as an issue of law and order, which does not necessarily invite criticism from human rights perspectives. The thesis then proceeds to empirically examine the governmental discourse on capital punishment from 1980 to 2002. It will contend that investigations from an appropriate approach can make clear the elite-driven nature of capital punishment policy in Japan. Finally, it will suggest implications for the international and domestic anti-death-penalty advocates regarding their campaigns over Japan, and reflect on how this thesis can help tackle future research.

Physical discipline of children is currently a subject of major debate within and beyond the UK. Mainly in relation to children's disciplinary relationships with teachers and parents, this topic is repeatedly the subject of high profile parliamentary and media debates, campaigns, legal cases and international political pressure. However, the perceptions of those in the social position to receive such physical discipline have rarely been included in the legal and political debates or in research studies. When young people's views have been sought it has been on issues and in terms determined by adults. This thesis specifically aims to address this gap in the research literature and to inform the debates on physical discipline by highlighting the issues of particular importance to young people. This is in line with recent legal, political and scientific shifts towards valuing the voices of children on all matters affecting them. Adopting a broadly interpretivist methodological approach, and drawing on the new 'sociology of childhood' paradigm, the study is grounded in the young people's own perceptions. It elicits their views at an abstract level and examines perceptions thematically in relation to their underlying frameworks of reference. The fieldwork involved focused interviews and focus groups with 227 participants aged 11-12 and 14-16 years from schools in central Scotland. In addition, the adult debates and interviews with 25 carers are analysed to further illuminate distinctive features of the young people's perceptions. Themes emanating from the young participants are organised into three dominant areas: purposes and immediate effectiveness of acts of physical force; concerns and contingencies surrounding acts of physical force; and relationships, rights and power. Young participants perceived the use of physical force as legitimate for certain disciplinary purposes. These are grouped in four main categories: to communicate with the child; to teach appropriate behaviour for the future; to restrain or remove the child; and to enforce overall adult control in specific situations. The term 'punishment' was associated by young participants solely with retribution, which they rejected as an illegitimate purpose for physical force. The widely perceived immediate effectiveness of physical discipline was seen as dependent upon the influence of certain contextual conditions, such as the child's personality and peer influence. Perceived effectiveness did not imply support for physical discipline. There was a strong theme of unease with its use but a lack of confidence in finding any alternatives. Contextual concerns about the application and short term negative effects of physical discipline are analysed as containing six dominant themes: whether the acts fulfilled legitimate purposes; avoidance of pain or injury; the extent of adult control of actions; the degree of embarrassment and humiliation; the precise bodily target of force; and the appropriate age of the child. The study found that these reservations led to participants introducing relatively fixed contingencies that physical discipline would have to meet in order for it to be considered acceptable. It is noted that the terms child abuse and violence were reserved by young participants for acts with specific characteristics which mark them as particularly unacceptable. Child abuse referred to acts without a legitimate purpose which focused on the needs of the adult rather than the child. Violence referred to acts in which the adult does not observe an appropriate limit to the force. Concerns about the longer term implications of physical discipline are identified as focused on the risks of: these fixed contingencies being broken by the adult; lasting physical or psychological damage; damage to the disciplinary relationship; and the child copying the behaviour inappropriately. Conversely, it is found that there was a subsidiary theme of concern that children not receiving physical discipline would grow up spoilt and wild with negative implications for wider society. The rights of adults to physically discipline children were assessed by young participants according to perceptions about the particular relationship and the constituents' social roles. Parental rights were presented by participants as exceptional because of a parents responsibility for a child's moral development and peculiar intimacy with a child. Parental delegation of rights to other adults, including teachers, was rejected by young participants because these relationships lack this intimacy. However, the study reveals a theme of resilient frustration at the 'unfairness' of one-sided rights surrounding all physical discipline. Moreover, it is found that young participants analysed acts of physical discipline as manifestations of a power imbalance in the adult-child relationship. Although young participants noted that adults can take advantage of their position, they also presented children as active agents who find strategies to challenge this power imbalance. A substantial body of opinion considered that the risks outweighed the rights of adults and necessitated a legal ban on all physical discipline, although participants were concerned with practical problems which might be caused by a gap between legal and attitudinal change in society. Overall, the study identifies two dominant discourses underlying young participants' perceptions of physical discipline: developmentalism, which portrays childhood as a natural progression towards competency; and rights, which stresses the fixed entitlements and responsibilities for active agents and social actors irrespective of competency. These two discourses are accommodated in the young participants' model of a dynamic power balance between active social actors in the disciplinary relationship. The perceptions of young people presented in this study form a competent and sophisticated interpretation and critique of adults' use of physical discipline. Moreover, the study identifies substantial differences between the young participants' perceptions and the views expressed by the carers interviewed and actors in the wider legal, political and research debates. These differences highlight peculiar features in young people's perceptions. For example, young participants stressed the purpose of physical discipline for moral development, whereas both carers and the adult debates have focused on social development and obedience to adult authority. The contingencies which young participants placed on disciplinary acts were less flexible than carers' across different situations. Young participants' rejection of parental rights to delegate disciplinary rights was not shared by carers or featured in the adult debates. Carers did not share young participants' concerns with the imbalance of rights and power in disciplinary relationships with physical force. The study concludes by underlining the implications for policy, practice and research on physical discipline that are presented by the distinct perspectives of young people.

This study, a test of the specific deterrence in the area of juvenile delinquency, has three basic concerns. The first of these is to obtain perceptual measures of the primary components of the doctrine. Individual interpret reality, and it is this perception or interpretation of reality, rather than reality itself, that influences behavior. Second, the concern is to consider the pleasure aspect of delinquent involvement. Prior research has concentrated on punishment, virtually overlooking pleasure. And thirdly, the concern is to view specific deterrence in terms of its implicit temporal ordering, that perceptions be measured prior to the advent of subsequent delinquency. Specifically this study investigated recidivism of juvenile male first time burglary offenders. The data was drawn from police reports, probation officer's impressions and interviews with 127 boys who met the criteria of this study. The specific patterns found are both consistent and inconsistent with the deterrence doctrine. Consistent with the doctrine, pleasure is directly related to recidivism. The fact that pleasure is also one of the best predictors of recidivism suggests that its omission from most prior research may certainly have diminished the potential predictive power of the doctrine in those studies. Consistent with both the doctrine and prior research, certainty of apprehension (logarithm) is a primary deterrent to recidivism. The findings regarding the severity of punishment, on the other hand, are not so straightforward. Admittedly, the recidivists did not experience what they perceived as severe punishment. The court's response appeared to be irrelevant, and the response viewed as one of the most severe (grounding) by the recidivists was infrequently applied to them. Consistent with the doctrine, severity of apprehension (punishment) was inversely related to recidivism. However, the effect of punishment appears to be an indirect one through the condemnation of the act. This suggests that fear of punishment may not be the "deterring force"; rather, certain and severe sanctions may act to educate the one-time offender, specifying what is accepted as moral behavior. Obviously, further research is needed to uncover the interrelated effects of certainty of apprehension, moral condemnation and severity of punishment.

本研究主要析理台灣教育界對於懲罰議題的不同立場，藉以探討懲罰與教師責任之間的倫理辯證關係。研究問題主要回答有五。 本研究的第一個研究問題是：「以往理論上所認可的懲罰正當性有那些？」我們的回覆是：基於公平正義的應報論、以及基於社會效益而的嚇阻論及改造論。應報論認為學生犯錯應當為其行為付出代價，嚇阻論認為懲罰學生是為了避免有人再敢以身試法，改造論則是希望幫助學生改過而不再犯。 這些懲罰理論所持的正當性都十分有理據。不過，由於批判教育學者及Foucault的啟發，懲罰所依恃的規則以及所仰賴的權威都有商榷的餘地，不應視為理所當然。固然懲罰犯錯者可能懷有善意，但這善意也未必是不能檢討的。再者，教育現場時常不當使用懲罰（體罰），像這種暴力對待學生的方式實在是對學生人權的一大侵犯。故本研究第二個研究問題「懲罰的正當性在當今有無修正的必要？」即證為有此必要。 再就以往台灣教育場域何以慣用懲罰之結構性因素予以考察，發現傳統文化的影響曾構成支持懲罰的結構之一部分，但是升學主義、管理主義所帶來的教育扭曲較具決定性。此外，師資培育的專業化過程並未明顯改善所謂「日治時期遺留下來的惡習」－體罰。教育專業的論述裡頭，對於體罰雖有反對之意見，但仍持適度保留的態度－即懲罰雖是下下策，但它可用，唯須慎用。因此，本研究第三個研究問題「往昔傾向支持懲罰的脈絡是什麼？」答覆如上。 既然往昔存在著支持懲罰的脈絡，那麼我們是否有超越之作法可以解決這樣的難題，便成了反對懲罰立場必須提供的論證。我們在第五章介紹了關懷倫理學的主張，這項倫理主張可以補足以往我們只訴諸於正義為最高價值的空缺，也就是以一個更全方位關照到事務情、理、法三面倫理學來看待犯錯者是否一定要懲罰的議題。再者，我們也認為教師情意智慧的培養有其必要，才得以解決一部分現今時常因情緒控制不佳而造成校園體悲劇的遺憾。同時，教師應當打破沈默文化、勇於發聲，並正視學生的反抗文化所傳達的背後意涵，如此才不會因著教師自己的權威而成為壓迫的一方。除了這些理論意味濃厚的述介外，我們也舉了一些體制內教育者之圖像供參。最後，我們以另類教育之另類思維與作法，讓我們見識到一些可行的替代方案，既可兼顧到學習者本身的自主性，也關注到集體的秩序。於是，本論文第四個研究問題「有無超越懲罰以外的管教理念與參考作法？」我們的答覆是有的，而且還陸續在繁衍中… 最後一個研究問題「教育專業倫理如何看待與拿捏懲罰議題？」是本論文的總結。我們確認了教育專業所致力的價值，乃是真、善、美的實踐。師者的教育責任在於其有義務確保這樣的事情發生，或至少他／她必須長養著這樣的環境。 教師專業責任的高標，在於關懷所有學生並致力於其最佳之利益。教師專業責任的低標，則在於公平正義原則下不傷害學生為原則。 教育責任含納著管教或不管教，不管教不意謂放棄，而是等待緣熟而教。管教也未必需要懲罰，不懲罰也可使之省過。這些都需要智慧才可以判斷。教師專業倫理即是確保教師可以做出這樣的判斷。 懲罰學生不應指向於學業學習上，而應將其應用於德育、群育上的偏差行為之對治上。而且對於懲罰必須有這樣的判斷共識：動機利他、方法適當、時機妥切等三項條件均具備，才算是符合教育專業倫理。 最後，也別忘了批判教育學與Foucault給我們的忠言。懲罰是一個事件。整個處理學生行為的始末過程是身教的示範，也是教育得以展現善意的最佳時機。同時，懲罰者的動機若不具善意，則任何形式的懲罰，那怕是輕柔的，都可能是支配關係而存在。那麼，懲罰學生即使是盡了教育者的責任，也變得不符合教師專業倫理了！ / The aim of the dissertation is to clear out the concepts between “punishment” and “responsibility” beyond the discourses of education in Taiwan. It is proposed five main questions here, the core of all the questions is to answer the ethics for professionals in education, especially for teachers. The first question to be discussed is how is it thought justified of punishment in theories. Generally speaking, there are three kinds of theories of punishment offering justification acknowledged. They are retributive theory, deterrent theory, and reformative theory. Punishment is justified in response to offenders’ desert, or to threat offenders from doing again, or as a means to re-educate people, in these three different visions of theories. There is no disagreement on these three theories that the assumption that rules are authorized and those who break the rules should be punished without excuses. In the context of (post-)modern times, though the justification of punishment were wildly accepted, we must notice the construction of punishment-rule, authority and pain is need to be reexamined. For Foucault, according Discipline and Punish, punishment is in the same sense of discipline, namely without discipline there is no punishment neither. Critical theorists begin with the premise that people are unfree and inhabit a world life with contradictions and asymmetries of power and privilege. Under such context of real life, punishment is the means of hegemony without doubt. The advocates of human rights see punishment as violence. It is mistaken to think that corporal punishment accepted in education. Children should be raised up and educated in atmosphere filled of dignity and respects, not the treatment of punishment (especially physically). All these views challenge the rules governed punishment, question the authorized power to exert punishment, and reject the pain on the human bodies. The evidence shown here is that justification of punishment theories have to be rectified. Furthermore, we have recalled the context why punishment used throughout in schools in Taiwan. It seems reasonable to conclude: teacher professionalism in Taiwan did not prepare our teachers well to reform the phenomenon of punishment abuse. We also offered some alternatives to educators for teaching without punishment. We drew attention to the ethics of “care”, in contrast to the traditional ethics of “justice”, meet the needs of education well. Some real examples and useful thoughts were shown that the preparation and in-service training of teacher professionals need to be reformed too. Finally, we come to a conclusion of punishment and responsibility of teachers. It needs to be recognized as part of ethics of educators.

Community service as an alternative to imprisonment at its inception was taken up very strongly by the judiciary as part of the reform of the criminal justice system in Uganda. The successful enactment of the Community Service Act, Act no: 5/2000, was an achievement towards the implementation of the programme in the country. However, its implementation as an alternative sentence is currently proceeding at a slow pace. The Ugandan law still allows courts to exercise their discretionary powers with regard to either using prison sentences or community service. Courts still seem to prefer to use imprisonment irrespective of the nature of the offence, thus leading to unwarranted government expenditure and prison overcrowding. An additional problem is that some offenders come out of prison having been negatively affected by their interaction with even more serious offenders. This study was undertaken to establish whether community service as an alternative to imprisonment can be effective with regard to reducing recidivism and to accelerating reconciliation and reintegration of minor offenders back into their communities.