It depends. There really aren't any good numbers. We could tease out some conclusions by looking at things like poaching convictions, etc., in the First Indus

It depends. There really aren't any good numbers. We could tease out some conclusions by looking at things like poaching convictions, etc., in the First Industrial Revolution. Mainly, we can say that poaching did go down. However, whether that was because the law changed a longstanding social activity or because of societal changes that happened concomitantly with the law is something that could still be debated. In the case of something like poaching I actually think that deterrence worked. In the case of murder (which was my main focus) I'd say no.