Re: crime and deterrence

From: Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin (warrl@mail.blarg.net)
Date: Mon Mar 16 1998 - 17:53:48 MST


> From: Anton Sherwood <dasher@netcom.com>
 
> I think Charlie means (and I agree) that increasing the severity of
> punishments, as our posturing politicians like to do, is pointless so
> long as the robber is confident that punishment is unlikely. (And
> remember that crooks tend to underestimate the likelihood of getting
> caught, anyway). Rather than jacking up the (nominal) length of
> sentences and building more prisons for the minority who get caught,
> we'd be better off devoting those resources to catching more of the
> crooks.

That, and not wasting prison time and space (or court time and space,
or police time and space) on people who aren't even accused of doing
anything that violates anyone's rights.

US$500 fee for receipt of unsolicited commercial email. USC 47.5.II.227



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:48:45 MST