3 ms·

Cost of a police investigation, prosecution, and then housing them in jail for what? 2 years ? Public shaming is much cheaper

xwdv 4y ago
If you could guarantee someone would go to jail, that would be priceless. Unfortunately I don’t think they would.
- lbriner 4y ago
  You can never guarantee that! Even if the law was able to be that clear-cut about a particular crime, plenty of people would still believe they will get away with it, otherwise there would be no hard crime in the world right?
vkou 4y ago
These people have no shame, much like a lion has no shame when he eats an antelope.
- themitigating 4y ago
  That's instinctual and not an accurate analogy
josephg 4y ago
Still orders of magnitude cheaper than the amount of money scammers con out of the public every year.
- lbriner 4y ago
  In lots of cases, this is demonstrably not true. Sure some scammers might make millions but many make much less. Look at the average cost for prison, the cost of the police and Courts and it can add up to much more. I'm not saying that you should only jail people if it's cheaper but society cannot afford to incarcerate everybody who commits a crime, not only for the money but the effect it has on ex-cons who can't find work and spiral downwards; families growing up with parents in prison; hardening a soft criminal by jailing them with hard criminals. Sadly, it is much more complicated than we want to admit and there aren't many good alternatives that I have seen. Tends to be quite polarised "never jail people" or "always jail people".
  - mountainb 4y ago
    The government does nothing about the overwhelming majority of small time scammers. It’s left to the civil courts and small claims courts. When the feds do prosecute scams, it’s typically for large dollar value schemes that defraud tens of millions or more. So we already have that soft on crime reality when it comes to scamming and false advertising. The average person believes the government is far, far more active than it really is in this type of issue. Crime pays and most criminals get away with it.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      Hence public naming and shaming

xwdv 4y ago

If you could guarantee someone would go to jail, that would be priceless. Unfortunately I don’t think they would.

lbriner 4y ago
You can never guarantee that! Even if the law was able to be that clear-cut about a particular crime, plenty of people would still believe they will get away with it, otherwise there would be no hard crime in the world right?

vkou 4y ago

These people have no shame, much like a lion has no shame when he eats an antelope.

themitigating 4y ago
That's instinctual and not an accurate analogy

josephg 4y ago

Still orders of magnitude cheaper than the amount of money scammers con out of the public every year.

lbriner 4y ago
In lots of cases, this is demonstrably not true. Sure some scammers might make millions but many make much less. Look at the average cost for prison, the cost of the police and Courts and it can add up to much more. I'm not saying that you should only jail people if it's cheaper but society cannot afford to incarcerate everybody who commits a crime, not only for the money but the effect it has on ex-cons who can't find work and spiral downwards; families growing up with parents in prison; hardening a soft criminal by jailing them with hard criminals. Sadly, it is much more complicated than we want to admit and there aren't many good alternatives that I have seen. Tends to be quite polarised "never jail people" or "always jail people".
- mountainb 4y ago
  The government does nothing about the overwhelming majority of small time scammers. It’s left to the civil courts and small claims courts. When the feds do prosecute scams, it’s typically for large dollar value schemes that defraud tens of millions or more. So we already have that soft on crime reality when it comes to scamming and false advertising. The average person believes the government is far, far more active than it really is in this type of issue. Crime pays and most criminals get away with it.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    Hence public naming and shaming