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Originally posted by smooth
I just want to point out that criminologists differentiate between general deterrence (punish one crook, the rest of the population is afraid to steal) and specific deterrence (punish one crook, he or she becomes afraid to steal again).
I believe the consensus is that specific deterrence works when people believe they are likely to be caught and general deterrence only "works" in that it prevents crimes for a short period of time.
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One selling point of "shall issue" CCW laws is that it acts as a [general] deterrant. This is reinforced each time that a mugger/home invader/rapist is shot during an attempted crime.
Quote:
Originally posted by smooth
For example, death penalty studies show that murders do decrease after an execution, but they only do so for a few weeks. After that, they tend to increase in rate.
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..increase in rate back up to pre-execution rates, or do you mean that they end up higher than ever before?