AO3 Behaviour Modification

• +Research support. Hobbs and Holt studied young offenders, those taking part in a token economy programme showed more positive behaviours. Field found some young offenders didn't respond but did if rewards were more immediate, frequent and positive. This suggests that token economy systems do work.
• -Not straightforward.

  Basset and Blanchard found any benefits were lost if staff applied

  the techniques inconsistently due to lack of training or because of high

  staff turnover (an issue in many UK prisons). This suggests that behaviour modification schemes may not be as straightforward to implement as they first appear.
• +Easy to implement. Behaviour modification does not need a specialist professional involved, whereas this is true for other forms of treatment eg. anger management. Token economy systems can be designed and implemented by virtually anyone. They are cost-effective and easy to follow once methods have been established. This suggests that behaviour modification techniques can be established in most prisons and accessed by most prisoners.
• -Little rehabilitative value. Some treatments (e.g. anger management) are longer lasting because they involve understanding causes of, and taking responsibility for, own behaviour. In contrast, offenders can play along with a token economy system to access rewards, but this produces little change in their overall character. This may explain why, once the token economy is discontinued, an offender may quickly regress back to their former behaviour.
• Ethical Issues

  Behaviour modification has been associated with decreased conflict, more successful management of prisoners and reduced stress for prison staff in a potentially hostile environment. However, critics describe behaviour modification as manipulative and dehumanising (Moya and Achtenberg). Human rights campaigners argue that withdrawal of 'privileges is unethical. This suggests that the question of whether behaviour modification is successful may depend on whose perspective - prison staff or prisoners.