Harsher penal measures show no connection to actual crime rates.

Evidence

Statistics in Germany, as well as in France and England, however, demonstrated no connection between such penal measures and the crime rate. Only social change, he concluded, could lead to a decrease in the rate of criminal offenses. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 475

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact, striking empirical finding: harsher punishment doesn’t reduce crime, per 1930s European statistics.
• XREF: connects to: Prisons demonstrably fail to reduce the crime rate — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 402; Mass incarceration reflects who is labeled criminal, not actual crime rates — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 422; Punishment severity does not affect crime rates (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Prisons demonstrably fail to reduce the crime rate #corroborates (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 402
• Mass incarceration reflects who is labeled criminal, not actual crime rates #expands (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 422