"Some research has shown that increasing the severity of a punishment does not have much effect on crime, while increasing the certainty of punishment does have

"Some research has shown that increasing the severity of a punishment does not have much effect on crime, while increasing the certainty of punishment does have a deterrent effect." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_(legal) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_(legal)