Milgram Obedience

During his studies, it appeared to Milgram that if an individual is detached from the consequences of their actions, the possibility for abuse is greater than if they directly experience the effects of their abuse. In other words, if a person does not have to administer the abuse directly, the more likely he or she will be to abuse. Detachment theory argues that if an individual is detached from the effects of administering abuse, the more likely they will be to abuse (Hinman, 1998, 4).

Milgram’s studies on obedience to authority helped pave the way for understanding the relationship between punisher and punished. If the punisher is removed or detached from the punished, the chances are greater the punisher will administer lethal abuse. In my particular experience, by volunteering at the state prison I was able to witness the theories of Milgram on detachment and abuse firsthand. The prison had recently adopted the use of Stun Belts to control inmate behavior. Th

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he administers of shock if the recipients were given only small doses of voltage, i.e., no intense pain resulted (Blass, 1996, 1). This finding is important because it validates the use of pain under compliance with orders if the pain is not perceived as too severe. Thus, if this amount of pain is permissible in the mind’s of individuals, how much more pain would be acceptable if they were completely detached from the recipient? Discussion The trend in law enforcement is an increasing use of technology to control criminal behavior, from home surveillance tags to Stun Belts. With the advent of devices like Stun Belts, a law enforcement official is able to render an inmate or suspect immediately helpless by administering a severe and immobilizing but not lethal dose of electricity from a remote location. The detached nature of the Stun Belt has already created a catalogue of abuses “Amnesty International reported that a judge in the U.S. administered an electric shock of 50,000 volts to a prisoner who was wearing a stun-belt because he kept disrupting court procedures” (Lewer, 1999, 2). In my volunteer experience I saw many inmates wearing Stun Belts but only once did a corrections officer administer a shock. What was inte
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