October 20, 2014
Resistance to new ideas
Lobby group Rethinking Crime and Punishment says facts don’t seem to count in justice reform.
Spokesperson Kim Workman says attitudes to punishment and rehabilitation are formed early as part of social identity, so people resist new ideas even when evidence shows the old ways don’t work.
He says reform is further hampered by media reinforcing populist approaches to offending, and by the sort of people who end up making the rules.
" People who are very indivudalistic and ambitious and competitive often end up in politics and those sort of quite influential positions. Their values are so set in that frame that they resist also the new evidence " says Kim Workman.
Rethinking Crime and Punishment has published an e-book on ways to advocate for change, What Do I Have to Do To Change Your Mind
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH KIM WORKMAN CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjMyNzY=
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