Severity of Punishment and Deterrence, Essay Example

According to deterrence theory and the crime control model, the severity of punishment is inversely proportional to the level of crime rates.  In other words, increasing punishments should lower crime rates.  While this argument is persuasive, there is little consensus that the severity of criminal sanctions alone can reduce criminal activities. One reason is that because the likelihood of getting caught for some crimes is relatively low, the impact of deterrent measures is negligible over the long term. The second reason is that while some crimes are heavily punished on paper, their sanctioning power is watered down in reality. According to the latest government data:

Nearly all convictions for murder (95%) resulted  in a prison sentence, as did a majority of robbery (73%), and rape (64%) convictions. Over two-fifths of defendants convicted of burglary (48%) and motor vehicle theft (43%) were sentenced to prison. Nearly two-fifths of defendants convicted of a driving related offense (39%), assault (38%), or drug trafficking (37%) received a prison sentence. About a third of defendants convicted of forgery (35%), larceny/theft (33%), and weapons offenses (32%) were sentenced to prison. Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/fdluc02.txt

But note that 36 percent of rapists did not go to prison, nor did 52 percent of burglars; two thirds of drug traffickers avoid prison. Can you imagine that more than one third of convicted rapists avoid prison? I find that amazing considering how hard it it to get a rape conviction. About 5 percent of murderers do not go to prison; about 3 percent get the death penalty. More convicted murderers wind up back in the community than on death row.

To make up for these deficiencies and to increase the severity of punishments, crime control advocates called for tougher sentencing (discussed next week). The implementation of these policies is thought to have been a key reason that the crime rate has dropped. However criminals, with a few exceptions, were doing less time in 1996 than in 1990. As a result, there has been a push to increase the severity of punishment even further a topic, which we will cover next week.