"Do you think deterrence is ineffective?" Not as much as you'd expect. There are plenty of studies that confirm this (I'm too lazy to google them for you). The

"Do you think deterrence is ineffective?" Not as much as you'd expect. There are plenty of studies that confirm this (I'm too lazy to google them for you). The problem is, that when crimes are done, one does not usually think rationally or does not expect to be caught (or else he wouldn't do that in first place). Another big category of crimes (especially violent ones) are the ones committed out of passion, where severity of sentence does not play significant role either.