individual rights and the federal role in behavior modification, a study prepared by the staff of...
DESCRIPTION
In 1974 Senator Sam J. Ervin, who chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights' three year investigation into federal behavior modification experiments, released a report that discusses remote brain monitoring technology that could be applied to prisoners, and could track, observe, and influence them even after their so-called release. Ervin said the following about behavior modification.... As disturbing as behavior modification may be on a theoretical level, the unchecked growth of the practical, the technology has expanded our capacity for meeting society's needs, it has also increased, to a startling degree, our ability to enter and affect the lives of individual citizens ...Senator Ervin reported that his committee watched with growing concern as behavioral research unearths vast new capabilities far more rapidly than we are able to reconcile the many important questions of individual liberties raised by these capabilities.He deplored the fact that with the speedy proliferation of these techniques few real efforts have been made to consider the basic issue of individual freedom involved and to minimize fundamental conflicts between individual rights and behavior technology.Report AbstractThis report responds to a directive issued to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights to conduct an investigation into behavior modification programs, with particular emphasis on the federal government's involvement in the technology of behavior control and the implications of this involvement for individual rights. Two basic considerations motivated the investigation: first, the concern that the rights of human subjects of behavioral research are sufficiently protected by adequate guidelines and review structures; and second, [b]the question of whether the federal government has any business participating in programs that may alter the substance of individual freedom[/b]. Although the material included in this report is by no means comprehensive, some initial findings are apparent: (1) there is widespread and growing interest in the development of methods designed to predict, identify, control, and modify individual behavior; (2) few measures are being taken to resolve questions of freedom, privacy, and self-determination; (3) the Federal government is heavily involved in a variety of behavior modification programs ranging from simple reinforcement techniques to psychosurgery; and (4) a number of departments and agencies fund, participate in, or sanction research involving various aspects of behavior modification.TRANSCRIPT
