> If I broke into a person's house and stole $1000, even if I didn't directly hurt that person, I could expect to get several years in prison Almost definitely

> If I broke into a person's house and stole $1000, even if I didn't directly hurt that person, I could expect to get several years in prison Almost definitely not, especially if it was your first crime. It’s pretty unlikely you’d even be caught. Severity of the punishment has extremely diminishing returns on discouraging future crimes. The only other impetus for a longer sentence is if you think the defendant is likely to commit more crimes when released. Besides that, longer sentences are hard to justify.