It's been my experience that punishments that are unrelated to the core issue don't usually end successfully. First and foremost though, I believe the primary focus should be on finding a punishment (which is a terrible word) that minimizes resentment and maximizes the learning of a life lesson. This gets tricky when you're dealing with a teen obviously, so you have to be cautious not to step on the teenage-hormone driven behavior.

When I was 15, I did a lot of things wrong, and I knew they were wrong, but at the same time I knew that I would only lose my car for a week at most, so there really was no incentive to change. Many times I'd act out because I was perceived as a "problem child" so I simply acted the way I was expected to act. It wasn't until my parents began to express their disappointment in me instead of just punishing me that I began to change.

Now that I'm an adult and a parent myself, I've found that most episodes of acting out by my child aren't what they seem at face value. In my case, my child usually acts out because of some underlying problem that he doesn't want to tell me about or that he feels uncomfortable discussing or he simply thinks I won't understand. Sometimes these episodes of acting out serve as a coping mechanism for him, especially when he doesn't know how to express the real problem. I don't condone behavior that's inappropriate, but I try to make it a point to have a discussion with my child, explaining why his actions were wrong and why he is losing a certain privilege. In my personal situation, when I started engaging my child in conversation, speaking to him as an adult, followed by a punishment that suits the wrongdoing, over time the acting out became less and less and our relationship flourished. It took a while for him to finally come around, at first he just sat and listened. Patience was definitely my friend.