Don’t fool yourself. I knew a guy who served two and a half weeks before his lawyer did some maneuver to get him out/time served. He was a fairly tough kid, but he got beaten badly the first day and spent the next two days in the prison hospital. The next two weeks he just stayed vigilant day and night. He heard hideous stuff going on all night, but considered himself lucky for just getting one beating.
The thought of jail time has kept me from traveling at felonious speeds on public roads. I did it many years ago, hitting 125+ MPH for minutes at a time on some southern Utah highways, but since then I’ve gotten older and a bit more conservative; I don’t have it in me to do much more than 90 out there anymore. That’s still in felony territory, but it would take a seriously pissed-off cop to not knock it down by 10-15 MPH into non-felony territory.
It’s a bit of a skewed question, because there may be lots of crimes that the thought of prison would not deter you from due perhaps to a near-certainty of getting away with it, but if even one crime exists which the thought of prison deters you from, only one, then you have to answer “yes.”
First of all, I wanted to hear specific instances of prison deterring people from committing crimes, even if it was just once in their life, and not whether or not people BELIEVED that prison deters crime in general.
And I want to thank everyone who was honest, even those of you who admitted to wanting to do some pretty terrible things.
Now I know there are quite a few of you out there who don’t commit certain crimes simply because of a fear of prison time!
As someone who’s employed to look at these things, the size of the punishment only has a very minimal influence at a statistical level on whether people commit crimes. In fact, on a like-for-like basis, sending people to prison actually encourages people who get out to commit crimes. If you want to reduce crime rates, the ideal system would:
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determine who needs to be locked up because otherwise they’ll commit another crime as soon as possible (i.e. those who need to be subject to the ‘occupation effect’ of imprisonment),
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put everyone else in a supervised community release while subject to mandatory treatment for mental problems (which includes drug dependency and anger control) and breaking criminal habits including associations with friends/gangs/whatever that encourage offending.
This may not make people feel the rush that they get from knowing that someone who committed a particularly nasty crime is getting ‘what they deserve’, but public policy should take into account that doing that not only costs a fortune but increases crime rates as well.
Typically, the crimes that it’s least useful in sentencing people to long periods for are homicides - either someone is going to kill repeatedly (in which case they need to be removed from society permanently because no treatment will stop that behaviour) or they killed accidentally or in a fit of rage (in which case no punishment will make them refrain from killing anyway).
Statistically, what stops people from committing crimes is the strong belief that:
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they will be caught, and
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whatever punishment is inflicted will be swift, certain and not worth the benefits they gained from committing the crime.
Hit those two and you can drop the crime rate pretty quickly.
There’s not really a risk of going to ‘prison’ but the reason I don’t pirate things is partially a moral belief and partly fear of punishment. I know it’s unlikely, but it is definitely possible and a factor that deters me.
I have also thought about using some illegal substances but decided against it because it’s against the law.
But generally, prison or fines aren’t what keeps me from committing major crimes. It’s the fact that I have a functioning conscience.
It’s the opposite for me. Prison makes it much safer to commit crimes. Without prison the greeters at walmart would be armed with shotguns and simply shoot suspected shoplifters.
Being ethically and morally wrong has stopped me most often.
Though on some specific occasions that has not stopped me. I do feel guilty and ashamed about those times, though.
No, the threat of prison hasn’t deterred me from committing crimes. My moral compass has deterred me from committing crimes. I don’t rape, murder, steal, or destroy things because I think those are bad things to do. Frankly, the prevalence of people who are only deterred by the threat of punishment is disturbing. That means that I’m surrounded by amoral animals who are only restrained by either the mental yoke of religious retribution or the physical threat of arrest and jailing.
No, because I always figure I’m not going to be caught.
Pretty much. Why would you expect anything more than that from people? People are animals after all.
I have no doubt that you are a good, decent person - but I also absolutely believe that you are that way simply because society indoctrinated you to be so through tools such as the fear of punishment (from things such as religion, prison, and being socially ostracized). Most of us have an innate desire to conform with other humans, but my opinion is that absolutely nobody is born with an innate sense of right and wrong.
I do think that most people who are operating with their full mental capacities will weigh the risk of jail/prison in their decision to commit an illegal act.
I think a huge reason why so many people end up in prison despite that is that many convicts have substance abuse issues, and drugs certainly cloud one’s judgement.
A lot of people with serious mental illness end up getting arrested too.
Some may have impulse control problems, some may have simply been too arrogant to realize that they would be caught, and some who are in dire straits may have come to the conclusion that prison isn’t as bad as it would seem to a middle class person.
I think in general there is a deterrence effect for me, in the US, for non-white collar crime. Do that above misdemeanor level and you have to be stupid to think you’ll make it out alright in the end.
But for higher-end white collar felonies, hell, If I stole 100 million over 5 years and had to serve some years or so in minimum security* knowing I’d hidden away 2 mill? Sign me up. And you know they probably have well more than 2 mill hidden away for when they get out.
Actually looked into what the minimum security institutions were like when some of the fine folks at Enron got sentenced. One did minimum security at a prison that was a converted college campus with no fences, no movement restraint aside from the rules. Everybody there knew if they screwed up, they’d have to do harder time, and the population was a mix of white collar guys and non-violent drug offenders who had done enough time that they just had to make a year or two more before they hit freedom. No way either group was going to fuck that up… so guess what, some years + months with no rape, no murder, living on a college campus with no freedom and probably pretty shitty food. Yeah, white collar crime pays if you get big enough.
Would you live minimum security like that for 4 years in return for 500,000 a year (tax free, too, ha!). Makes it worth it if you can stand working with all the other jerk white collar criminals who have the same attitude as you. And don’t forget, most of you don’t get caught or, at worst, convicted.
Always been terrified about going to prison, but no.
In my active addiction, I committed a felony almost every day. I have not committed a felony since I have been clean, but fear of prison is not factor their either.
You have clearly never been in the system. It’s more like three colds, a steel bed with next to no padding, healthcare HA! I saw someone that hung himself wait 5-10 minutes to be cut down. Clearly dead. Other complaints are ignored or that you have to wait days/weeks to actually see someone (and often sent on your way with nothing). Structure? Ha, except for being locked in during certain hours, nothing is uplifting in any way. Socializing, yes I concede this one, you can become a much better criminal in jail by talking to the right people. But no, jailed and prison folk can’t do shit.
Reference, I was sent to jail for a non-violent non-felony that hurt exactly no one and is illegal because of moral whatever for 30 days