Question

What type of outcomes does prison represent (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment)? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

Answer:

negative punishment

Explanation:

Punishment  (positive or negative) decreases the chances that a particular behavioral reoccurs.

Handing a prison sentence to anyone that offends the laws of the state is an example of negative punishment based on available research. This is because, serving a prison sentence makes it more likely that the convict will commit the same crime again.

While many experts in criminal justice have observed that many ex-convicts tend to re-offend, the principles of positive punishment for convicts have been set out by Peter B. Wood in his paper titled "Exploring the Positive Punishment Effect Among Incarcerated Adult Offenders

"; American Journal of Criminal Justice 31(2):8-22; 2007; .

In his submission;

"As the U.S. has pursued a policy of mass imprisonment for nearly  three decades, now boasts the highest incarceration rate in the world and returns  nearly 800,000 ex-convicts into our communities each year, more attention to this  issue is called for-particularly since it could be argued that, for many offenders,  criminal justice punishments promote future offending."