{"id":123,"date":"2012-10-17T13:52:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T17:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=123"},"modified":"2023-08-12T14:13:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T18:13:50","slug":"18-perception-is-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawcomic.net\/guide\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"18. Perception Is Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n\n\n


The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 4: Deterrence\u00a0
Page 7: Perception is everything<\/p>\n

NARRATOR<\/em><\/p>\n

For both specific and general deterrence, the AMOUNT of punishment matters surprisingly little.<\/p>\n

Average Joe talking head<\/em><\/p>\n

AVERAGE JOE<\/em><\/p>\n

After all, how many people even KNOW how much time any particular person got for any particular crime?<\/p>\n

Apart from criminal lawyers and experienced offenders, almost NOBODY has any idea how much punishment they’re actually facing\u2014if any.<\/p>\n

NARRATOR<\/em><\/p>\n

What matters most instead is the threat that SOME punishment will be imposed…<\/p>\n

…in other words, it is the PERCEPTION that one is likely to be punished (if caught) that is the deterrent.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>Transcript<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,1],"tags":[5,4,9,6],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-criminal-law","category-uncategorized","tag-crime","tag-criminal-law","tag-deterrence","tag-punishment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t