Chapter 7 Learning Objectives

Understand the assumptions of deterrence theory and differentiate between specific and general deterrence
Identify Cesare Beccaria’s three elements of deterrence
Know how the deterrence argument has been used in the Supreme Court’s landmark death penalty cases
Know and understand why economists, sociologists and criminologists come to different conclusions regarding the death penalty
Understand the brutalization effect
Understand Pascal’s wager as applied to the death penalty and why it may be irrelevant to some