11 ms·

That's not what I've heard: https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/business-law/do-harsher-punishments-deter-crime https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/business-law/do

• berberous 5y ago
  Some of this is really just common sense. I believe the following: - If murder were not prosecuted, or punished by only a day in jail, murder rates would increase. It would effectively be legal. - Changing the sentence on murder from 10 years to life, however, would be unlikely to have any marginal deterrent effect. Stated more generally, I think many sentences in this country are horrifically long, and dramatically shortening them would not increase crime. But if you decrease them to a level where they are de minimis compared to the benefit of the crime, or just not prosecuted at all, I don’t need a study to tell me crime will increase. It is human nature.
  • tomlockwood 5y ago
    I've heard incorrect folk wisdom parroted as if it were true, before, so I'll wait for the study. Plenty of people claim they have a grasp on common sense, and many of them disagree.
    • efitz 5y ago
      Do you eat when you’re hungry and put on a raincoat outside when it’s raining, or do you wait for a study?
      • tomlockwood 5y ago
        Hilarious that you bought up "eating when hungry" as an example of common sense considering all the discussion about that recently. Folk wisdom loses, again :) I think I will wait for the study.
  • efitz 5y ago
    Exactly! Beyond a certain threshold, increasing punishment severity has diminishing returns (or negative, if you count the fiscal and societal costs of incarceration).