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- The Assumptions of Deterrence Theory
- Deterrence has long been considered the primary function of punishment because the threat of punishment is assumed to prevent people from committing acts that they may otherwise commit
- Rational choice theory: The assumption that behavior is governed by its consequences
- Economists favor rational choice theory
- Specific and General Deterrence
- Specific deterrence: The dissuasive effect of the imposed punishment on the future behavior of the person punished
- Contrast effect: The distinction between the conditions of the threatened punishment and the conditions of the everyday lives of those being punished
- General deterrence: The effect of punishment on those who have witnessed (directly or indirectly) it but not personally experienced it
- Three Principles of Punishment
- According to Cesare Beccaria, the three principles of punishment are: Certainty, swiftness, and severity
- One out of three murderers gets away with his/her crime in the U.S. today
- The time lapse between conviction and execution went from an average of 14.4 months in the 1950s to 174 months in 2010
- The Death Penalty/Deterrence Debate
- Peterson and Bailey’s article on the death penalty tells us that the death penalty had no discernible effect on reducing homicides and that most abolitionist states had lower homicide rates than most death penalty states
- Deterrence: Criminologists and Sociologists versus Economists
- Economists find a deterrent effect with the death penalty, however, sociologists/ criminologists find no deterrence
- Is there a Brutalizing Effect of Capital Punishment?
- Brutalizing effect: The assumption that executions are perceived by some as saying that it is okay to kill people who have offended us, and that a segment of those who perceive it this way will act on that perception and commit murder
- The Inconclusive Conclusion of the Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty
- The Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty (CDDP) recommends that deterrence studies should not be used to influence judicial deliberations
- A study done by Dutch statisticians, Gerritzen & Kirchgässner, found that ideology may account for most contradictory findings regarding deterrence
- What is Needed to Demonstrate if the Death Penalty is a Deterrent?
- More sophisticated statistical techniques and models are necessary to demonstrate if the death penalty is a deterrent
- Economists and criminologists/sociologists working together on the issue would average out their biases
- The Opinions of Criminologists and Police Chiefs on the Death Penalty
- The American Society of Criminology (ASC) issued a resolution regarding the death penalty making it very clear it would like a speedy abolition of this form of punishment
- Pascal’s Wager: A “Last Ditch” Effort
- Death penalty proponents apply Pascal’s reasoning to the death penalty debate under the assumption that rational people will consider the death penalty the “best bet”
- Abolitionists find it repugnant that lives may be gambled with using the Pascal’s wager