Punishment severity does not affect crime rates

Evidence

Most of the studies on the effects of drug sanctions on crime focus on their general or aggregate effects. Typically, these studies measure the extent to which drug crime is responsive to changes in drug law enforcement and/or incarceration for drug offenses. Such studies find that law enforcement activities that increase the certainty of apprehension have genuine suppressive effects on drug offending, although the effects often are only temporary; in contrast, law enforcement activities that increase the severity of drug sanctions have little or no effect on drug offending (Braga & Weisburd, 2012; Nagin, Cullen, & Jonson, 2009; Western, 2006). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1075 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Above all, no crime committed must escape the gaze of those whose task it is to dispense justice. Nothing so weakens the machinery of the law than the hope of going unpunished; how could one establish in the minds of the public a strict link between the offence and a penalty if it were affected by a certain coefficient of improbability? — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 157 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Certainty of apprehension deters drug crime but severity of punishment does not — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1075; Certainty, not severity, makes punishment deter because it fixes crime-punishment links in minds — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 157; Prison sentences for drug offenses do not deter future drug offending (+5 more)

Related

• Certainty of apprehension deters drug crime but severity of punishment does not (similarity 0.92)
• Harsher penal measures show no connection to actual crime rates. (similarity 0.86)
• Raising penalty severity theoretically deters crime but complex systems prevent it (similarity 0.83)
• Certainty, not severity, makes punishment deter because it fixes crime-punishment links in minds (similarity 0.82)
• More punitive drug sanctions fail to deter subsequent drug offending (similarity 0.82)
• Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway (similarity 0.81)
• Criminal punishment patterns lack deterrence or retributive logic (similarity 0.80)
• Drug enforcement intensity, not offending, drives racial disparities in sanctions (similarity 0.80)
• Drug prices fell despite intensified drug-war enforcement (similarity 0.79)
• Imprisonment fails to deter future drug offending across all racial groups (similarity 0.79)
• Drug war enforcement has coincided with falling rather than rising drug prices (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Certainty of apprehension deters drug crime but severity of punishment does not #corroborates (0.95) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1075
• Harsher penal measures show no connection to actual crime rates. #corroborates (0.95) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 475
• Certainty, not severity, makes punishment deter because it fixes crime-punishment links in minds #corroborates (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 157
• Prison sentences for drug offenses do not deter future drug offending #exemplifies (0.85)
• Mass incarceration did not lower crime but bred more prisons #corroborates (0.75)