After
sitting with this chapter for a little while, I am still bursting with an array
of emotions. Out of any social work setting, I have always thought that I would
have the most difficulty working in a jail or prison. This chapter reaffirmed
my belief. As I read Dr. Perry’s description of the crime, my body filled with anger.
I’m not sure if anger is even a strong enough emotion; it was more like rage. I
can usually stomach the cases when a person is assessed as “legally insane” and
unable to tell right from wrong. However, I get stuck when an individual knew
what they were doing. Based on previous chapters, I assumed a description of severe
neglect or abuse would follow the account of Leon’s crime. My gut reaction - the
limbic area of my brain- and my research-oriented brain - aka my prefrontal
cortex – started battling it out when the chapter ended.
I had the
stereotypical thoughts: “not every neglected child murders and rapes” and “how
would I feel if the victims were someone I knew?” On the other side, my brain
was thinking: “did his genetics and environment create a perfect storm?” I have
a difficult time accepting Leon’s actions as inevitable. However, many of the things
that would have changed Leon’s path were out of his control. Leon only received
punishment, he never came to understand the relationship between people and
pleasure, and the programs he was put in only worsened the situation.
I have
seen the effects of putting a group of “troubled” adolescents together for
extended periods of time. Dr. Perry uses the word “troubled” to refer to disturbed
children with behavior problems, but I’m referring to behavior disturbances, as
well as self-harm, depression, anxiety, etc. Adolescents benefit from hearing
peers in similar situations talk about their experiences. The loneliness or ostracization
they feel can be lessened by knowing they aren’t the only ones going through the
difficulties. The downside is what Dr. Perry describes as children “egging each
other on” and “modeling” behaviors. I witnessed more than one instance of these
type of behaviors, whether it be a patient egging on another to fight or one
patient self-harming and two or three self-harming soon after. After reading
the chapter on behavior therapy, I wonder how reinforcement played a role in
Leon’s life and the patients I worked with.
Normally,
positive and negative reinforcement is used to reward positive behavior and
encourage people to continue to engage in the behavior. However, I’ve noticed
that when only punishment is used, the “bad” behavior can be reinforced. In the
case of Leon, he only received attention, albeit negative, when he lashed out. I
don’t mean to refer to Leon as an animal, but I notice a similar pattern with
my roommate’s cat. If I start ignoring Cheddar, he will do something he knows
he isn’t supposed to (e.g. knocking over water bottles, scratching the couch). Even
though the attention I give him is negative, he knows he gets my attention when
he starts engaging in one of those behaviors. More recently, I’ve tried to
ignore him whenever his acts up and start petting him when he stops. We
discussed in class that positive reinforcement is much more effective than
punishment. I would imagine the increase of positive reinforcement and
affection early in Leon’s life would have worked wonders. I would hope that even
implementing positive reinforcement in preschool would have been helpful. It’s
easy for me to say teachers should focus more on positive behaviors, but I’m
not the one who has to manage 20 kids in a classroom by myself. I think it’s
easy to blame teachers for yelling at their students, but the way the system is
set up doesn’t always allot them time to build genuine relationships. I get
irritated with my own cat when I’m trying to do something; I can’t imagine
trying to implement behavior modification and teach 20 children at the same
time.
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