How does prison not deter most people? It deters me, I would hate and fear to be confined in jail for years. I might speed or do things that carries a penalty like fines or something, but as for real prison stuff, I stay away from that.
I hadn’t considered the cannabis angle when I responded, but I have passed up opportunities because of potential legal consequences.
There are people who have missed out on much deserved beatdowns simply because it was illegal to administer them.
And on the felony/grand larceny side of the question, I have planned in detail how to rob various banks, jewelers, and sporting goods stores that I would love to try out. I just don’t think that ‘I wanted to see if it would work’ is likely to carry much weight as a defense argument.
There have been several people in my life that – in my opinion – the only moral response to them would have been to beat them severely.
But knowing the law would frown on that, I restrained myself.
So, yes.
Considering that I’ve heard about what’s going down in various 3rd world hell holes, I’d say that prison absolutely deters crime.
It does not eliminate crime, but the alternative, no jail for crimes, would send our crime rate into the stratosphere.
I’ve never felt the desire to physically harm someone, and I’m a little disturbed at the number of people who’ve said that prison is the only thing that keeps them from beating people up. I feel that my own moral compass is sufficient to keep my temper in line without prison coming into the thought process, and I think it should be the same for everyone.
That said, like many teenagers I smoked pot and committed various acts of petty vandalism, and the thought of prison never entered my mind back then either. However, if prison didn’t exist, I don’t think I’d have the same moral compass that I do now. I’d see people committing "crimes’ and essentially getting away with it, and my formative teenage brain would have seen that and adjusted to that normality. So while it does nothing on a personal level, I’m glad prison exists and I wouldn’t want to live in a world without it.
Yeah, it’s not the only thing – I like having the respect of society in general, but I like being non-felon better. A number of times people with whom I’ve had words tried to provoke me into some petty little rumble, and a large part of me thought it would be fun to have a full-on brawl.
Maybe it’s the dental bills (for me, probably, and definitely for him) and the possible civil liabilities that stopped me as much as prison. Prison doesn’t scare me so much as being a con, a felon, and being docked for a bunch of pay by Judge Wapner and the like.
Still, yeah, petty crime is kind of attractive – you’re broke, some idiot who pissed you off just left a wad of cash on the coffeshop table.
Even then, though, going by first impulse = best, just do the right thing. I did find a ten dollar bill on the floor of a grocery store once, though, and I kept it. So what? I don’t even think that’s illegal, still more theft, which is IMHO a weightier accusation.
I was doing an electrical job in an old Marine Corps red-line brig on Adak in about 1969. I was in my third year in the Navy and had pretty much of a give-a-shit attitude. I saw the guys in the cells, and it made no real impression, other than “that’s a bitch”.
Then they brought in a new prisoner. :eek::eek::eek: Had him strip down naked in front of the whole staff, while shouting abuse at him for being a fucked up fat-body, feet on the red line, hands against the wall until his arms gave out and sent him crashing to the floor; then ran his ass into a cold shower. It was at that point that I decided that while I didn’t really give a shit, I would do so while staying out of trouble.
I think your logic is flawed.
Yes. I would sell weed if there wasn’t a risk of prison time as a result.
Same impulse that I had when I decided working a crummy job w/o healthcare when younger that I wouldn’t go ahead and try to learn to do backflips like the Blues Brothers. B/c when/if I broke my neck I would have been broker and with no job.
Just smarts (well, not in my case!) – that’s what keeps you on the good side of the law. And not getting hosed down I’d think can be a powerful incentive – we all saw First Blood!
I’d love to commit several white collar crimes and make my fortune in short period of time but the risk reward is heavily in favor of earning my money so I’d say that jail has prevented me from committing those crimes.
With crimes of passion, I’ve been in several bar fights over the years, jail never entered my mind and luckily the cops never got involved more then to break up the fights. Although it did prevent me from beating the guy that rapped my friend into a comma so I guess it works somewhat for crimes of passion too, or at least while hunting him down I had time to think about it. With misdemeanors like smoking weed or stupid stuff I figure the chances of getting caught are low enough that jail is not actually a risk and it’s losing my job that prevents me from committing them.
I went with yes it prevents me from coming crimes but it’s not a deterrent across the board.
There’s definitely things I would have done if I couldn’t be punished for them (also if I had the necessary materials), and I suspect some of them would result in prison; destroying things, setting fire to things, and such, for one example. Hell, there have been times I wanted to kill/hurt/maim someone and the thought of consequences was a major deterrent, although I’m uncertain if I would have done it even absent the consequences.
Yup. Been there, done that, don’t want to go back.
Some crimes. I pirate and smoke weed on occasion. Fear of prison keeps me from committing more easily punished crimes like robbing a bank. I really should say it is more fear of my fellow prisoners than the actual prison experience, given enough books I am fairly sure I wouldn’t have much of a problem doing a decade or two if it wasn’t for the constant fear of butt rape or beatings or really just being surrounded by scum.
The most obvious case was when I was ordered to do something illegal at work. I refused and was fired. So was my boss, because he wouldn’t fire me. The people who were promoted to replace the two of us were happy to comply. Six months later I was employed elsewhere, my boss was back at the same company, and the two “team players” were in jail, along with the. CEO and CFO.
I like to think that it was my moral fibre that caused me to refuse. But I did consider the economic cost against the risk of criminal prosecution or even civil fraud claims. When I was fired, I lost several hundred thousand dollars worth of stock options. Many times my net worth. A couple of months later, the options were worthless anyways hen the company collapsed. But I could not know that in advance.
I’m more afraid of a criminal record screwing up mu employment opportunities. I don’t think a couple years in prison would scare me much.
however for serious crimes you fave decades or life in prison. that’s kind of a deterrent but I likely wouldn’t commit those crimes anyway.
I would probably do the same. On the other hand, I wouldn’t cheat on my tax form, as a previous poster said he would. Go figure…
I still answered no to the poll because there has been no actual, specific crime that the risk of a prison sentence deterred me from committing.
Generally speaking, I tend to believe that a sentence of, say 2 years would be as good a deterrent as a sentence of 20 years in most cases. I believe that most criminals just don’t think about consequences, or don’t envision being caught. They aren’t pondering about whether the crime, bringing a 37% risk of being sent to jail for 13 years, is worth the risk.
ETA : I’m surprised by the results. I would have expected “no” to win by a very large margin.
I had decided that I wouldn’t serve in Vietnam if I was drafted, and leaving the country wasn’t greatly appealing to me, so I figured prison could be a result. It wasn’t a tough decision with the war winding down, but in a matter conscience I didn’t consider prison a deterrent.
Otherwise, there are lot more things than prison that deter me from committing crimes.
I declined to register for selective service in 1980. The possibility of prison seemed remote, but I guess it could have happened. A risk I was wiling to take.
There are numerous things that influence my choice not to commit crimes. Fear of imprisonment is one of them, but not necessarily the most significant one.