Editing Punishment (section)

==Definitions==
[[File:Fence of Prison-BPO.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Barbed wire]] is a feature of prisons.]]
[[File:Cela.jpg|thumb|upright|A modern jail cell]]
[[File:Hester Prynne.jpg|thumb|upright|Hester Prynne at the Stocks—an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition of ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'']]
[[File:Alavoine Rab fenyítése Temesváron.jpg|thumb|upright|Punishment of an offender in [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]], 1793]]

There are a large number of different understandings of what punishment is.<ref name="Is restorative justice punishment"/>

===In philosophy===
Various philosophers have presented definitions of punishment.<ref name=stanford-crimeState/><ref name=punGR/><ref name=stanford-theoryOf/><ref name=Peters1966/><ref name=j-kleining/> Conditions commonly considered necessary properly to describe an action as punishment are that
# it is imposed by an authority (single or multiple),
# it involves some loss to the supposed offender,
# it is in response to an offense and
# the human (or other animal) to whom the loss is imposed should be deemed at least somewhat responsible for the offense.

===In psychology===
{{Main|Punishment (psychology)}}
Introduced by [[B.F. Skinner]], punishment has a more restrictive and technical definition in psychology.  Along with [[reinforcement]], it belongs under the [[operant conditioning]] category.  Operant conditioning refers to learning with either punishment that discourages the measured behavior, or a reward that encourages the behavior.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=W, J.C|first=Furman, Masters|date=1980|title=Affective consequences of social reinforcement, punishment, and neutral behavior.|journal=Developmental Psychology|volume=16|issue=2|pages=100–104|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.16.2.100}}</ref>

In psychology, punishment is the reduction of a behavior via application of an unpleasant stimulus ("''positive'' punishment") or removal of a pleasant stimulus ("''negative'' punishment"). Extra chores or [[spanking]] are examples of positive punishment, while [[Grounding (discipline technique)|grounding]] a teenager or removing [[screen time]] privileges are examples of negative punishment.

The definition requires that punishment is only determined after the fact by the reduction in behavior; if the offending behavior of the subject does not decrease, it is not considered punishment. In operant conditioning terms, punishment does not need to involve any type of pain, fear, or physical actions; even a brief spoken expression of disapproval, or calmly telling a student that they answered a question incorrectly, is a type of punishment, if the result is a decrease in the behavior (e.g., a decrease in giving that wrong answer to that question).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Leaf |first=Justin B. |last2=Cihon |first2=Joseph H. |last3=Leaf |first3=Ronald |last4=McEachin |first4=John |last5=Liu |first5=Nicholas |last6=Russell |first6=Noah |last7=Unumb |first7=Lorri |last8=Shapiro |first8=Sydney |last9=Khosrowshahi |first9=Dara |date=June 2022 |title=Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9114057/ |journal=Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |volume=52 |issue=6 |pages=2838–2853 |doi=10.1007/s10803-021-05137-y |issn=1573-3432 |pmc=9114057 |pmid=34132968 |quote=Punishment, from a behavior analytic perspective, describes any context in which a response is followed by an event (i.e., stimulus change) that results in a decrease in the probability of similar responses in similar situations.... Absent from this definition are things like pain, fear, discomfort, and the like. Suppose a person parks their car taking up two spaces and a passerby comments, “That’s inconsiderate.” If the probability of taking up two spaces while parking subsequently decreases, we can reasonably presume that punishment occurred.}}</ref> There is some [[conflation]] of punishment and [[aversives]], though an aversion that does not decrease behavior is not considered punishment in psychology.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=I|first=Lorge|date=1933|title=The effect of the initial chances for right responses upon the efficacy of intensified reward and of intensified punishment.|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology|volume=16|issue=3|pages=362–373|doi=10.1037/h0070228}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Church|first=R.M.|date=1963|title=The varied effects of punishment on behavior|journal=Psychological Review|volume=70|issue=5|pages=369–402|doi=10.1037/h0046499|pmid=14049776}}</ref> Additionally, "aversive stimulus" is a label behaviorists generally apply to negative reinforcers (as in [[avoidance learning]]), rather than the punishers.

=== In socio-biology ===
Punishment is sometimes called ''[[revenge|retaliatory]]'' or ''[[moralistic aggression]]'';<ref>{{Cite journal|last=T.H., G.A.|first=Clutton-brock, Parker|date=1995|title=Punishment in animal societies|journal=Nature|volume=373|issue=6511|pages=209–216|doi=10.1038/373209a0|pmid=7816134|bibcode=1995Natur.373..209C|s2cid=21638607}}</ref> it has been observed in all{{clarify|date=October 2011|reason= 1. does source say AND support "ALL"? 2. Does source say CHEATING and punishment for CHEATING has been observed in ALL social animals? 3. Does source establish what counts as cheating among all social animals?}} species of [[social animal]]s, leading evolutionary biologists to conclude that it is an [[evolutionarily stable strategy]], selected because it favors [[cooperation|cooperative behavior]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mary Stohr|author2=Anthony Walsh|author3=Craig Hemmens|title=Corrections: A Text/Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDcB7-EVi0cC&pg=PA3|year=2008|publisher=Sage|isbn=978-1-4129-3773-3|page=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fehr, Gätcher|first=Ernst, Simon|date=10 January 2002|title=Altruistic punishment in humans|journal=Nature|volume=415|issue=6868|pages=137–140|doi=10.1038/415137a|pmid=11805825|bibcode=2002Natur.415..137F|s2cid=4310962}}</ref>

However, other evolutionary biologists have argued against punishment to favour cooperation. Dreber et al. demonstrate that while the availability of costly punishment can enhance cooperative behavior, it does not improve the group's average payoff. Additionally, there is a significant negative relationship between the overall payoff and the employment of costly punishment. Individuals who achieve the highest total payoffs generally avoid using costly punishment. This indicates that employing costly punishment in cooperative games may be disadvantageous and suggests that it may have evolved for purposes other than promoting cooperation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dreber |first1=Anna |last2=Rand |first2=David G. |last3=Fudenberg |first3=Drew |last4=Nowak |first4=Martin A. |date=March 2008 |title=Winners don't punish |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=452 |issue=7185 |pages=348–351 |doi=10.1038/nature06723 |issn=1476-4687 |pmc=2292414 |pmid=18354481|bibcode=2008Natur.452..348D }}</ref>

Achieving a certain proportion of trust in the population can lead to self-governance without the need for punishment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Battu |first1=Balaraju |last2=Rahwan |first2=Talal |date=2023-01-21 |title=Cooperation without punishment |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=1213 |doi=10.1038/s41598-023-28372-y |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=9867775 |pmid=36681708|bibcode=2023NatSR..13.1213B }}</ref>

==== Examples against sociobiological use ====

There are also arguments against the notion of punishment requiring intelligence, based on studies of punishment in very small-brained animals such as [[insect]]s. There is proof of [[honey bee]] workers with mutations that makes them fertile laying eggs only when other honey bees are not observing them, and that the few that are caught in the act are killed.{{Citation needed|date=February 2017}} This is corroborated by [[computer simulation]]s proving that a few simple reactions well within mainstream views of the extremely limited intelligence of insects are sufficient to emulate the "political" behavior observed in [[great ape]]s. The authors argue that this [[falsifiability|falsifies]] the claim that punishment evolved as a strategy to deal with individuals capable of knowing what they are doing.<ref>''How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence'', Rolf Pfeifer, Josh Bongard, foreword by Rodney Brooks. 2006</ref>

In the case of more complex brains, the notion of evolution selecting for specific punishment of intentionally chosen breaches of rules and/or wrongdoers capable of intentional choices (for example, punishing [[human]]s for murder while not punishing lethal [[virus]]es) is subject to criticism from [[coevolution]] issues. That punishment of individuals with certain characteristics (including but, in principle, not restricted to mental abilities) selects against those characteristics, making evolution of any mental abilities considered to be the basis for penal responsibility impossible in populations subject to such selective punishment. Certain scientists argue that this disproves the notion of humans having a biological feeling of intentional transgressions deserving to be punished.<ref>[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] (1886). ''Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future''</ref><ref>Allen, Elizabeth, et al. (1975). "Against 'Sociobiology'". [letter] New York Review of Books 22 (Nov. 13).</ref><ref>Dawkins, Richard (1979). ''Twelve misunderstandings of kin selection''</ref><ref>"Observational Learning in Octopus vulgaris." Graziano Fiorito, Pietro Scotto. 1992.</ref><ref>Aliens of the deep sea, documentary. 2011.</ref>