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According to the Department of Justice, prison time is not a very effective way to deter crime, and increased punishment severity does not deter crime: https://
by Osmose 5y ago
According to the Department of Justice, prison time is not a very effective way to deter crime, and increased punishment severity does not deter crime: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterrence https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterr... (sources at the bottom)
Instead it claims the certainty of being caught is more effective than the actual punishment. And if Union Pacific is doing as well as they claim at catching the people responsible, what does that say about the motivators driving these people?
- avalys 5y agoThe page you linked has a large headline halfway through: "3. Police deter crime by increasing the perception that criminals will be caught and punished." "Caught and punished" is the important part here. The problem is that today there is effectively no punishment and no consequence for getting caught. In fact, the people who get caught go right back to the railroad tracks and do it again, and brag to the cops that their charge was reduced to misdemeanor trespassing. Even if it failed to deter others (which I don't concede), putting these people in jail would stop these same people from committing the same crime again, which at least would be an improvement over the current situation.