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Deterrence only works when someone who might have committed a crime chooses not to, because he fears that he might be punished for it. It's impossible to measure how often this happens, but it doesn't take much thought to see that few crimes are actually prevented by deterrence.


The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 4: Deterrence 
Page 4: Measuring Deterrence

NARRATOR

Well, it depends.

Deterrence only works when someone who MIGHT have committed a crime chooses instead NOT to do it, because he fears that he might be punished for it.

Average Joe going “hmm…” and pondering a sack of cash vs. going to jail.

It’s impossible to measure the number of crimes that DIDN’T happen, but it doesn’t take much thought to see that the number of crimes prevented by deterrence has to be fairly SMALL.

Stick figure grinning, ducking, and running off with the sack of cash.

Transcript



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There are now 2 comments... what are your thoughts?
  1. Erkos says

    I don’t really see why the number should be low. Couldn’t we just as well argue that if the state has no longer the power to punish crime, society would fall apart as the biggest criminals would build mafia-like organizations and start to run the country?

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  2. I’m a fairly civilized kind of guy, but there are some laws that I think are stupid or overly restrictive and I would definitely violate them if there were no consequences.

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