Two Six Factors In The Effectiveness Of General Deterrence

Improved Essays
Deterrence is a way of using punishment to threaten, discourage, or divert people from committing further crimes. There are two key categories of deterrence: general deterrence and specific deterrence. General deterrence targets potential offenders, aiming to discourage individuals from committing similar offences as past offenders. General deterrence can also be thought of as a threat to the whole public, it would occur when an individual sees the consequences of another; therefore, does not engage in the same behavior. Specific deterrence, on the other hand, is a punishment to the individual person because of a crime they committed. This type of deterrence would occur when the individual decides not to commit the same crime due to their …show more content…
There are six factors that play a role in the effectiveness of general deterrence. Individuals rationally weigh costs and benefits of the crime. For example, as stated in the text, “To a drug addict, the cost of not stealing the money to pay for one’s next fix probably seems greater than stealing he money” (Berger, Free, and Searles 2009). To someone that continually commits crime by dealing drugs, stealing money may not be seen as a threat or harmful in any way. They believe it is more beneficial to have the drugs exactly when they are needed. Along with this, individuals do not intend on getting caught when committing a crime. To relate to the drug situation, these individuals do not sit around every day and plan how, when, or if they will get caught. However, the contrast effect plays a role in the effect of deterrence. Many criminals do not see great importance in their life and believe they do not have as much to lose if they were to be caught. This makes the concept of deterrence ineffective because individuals do not see the punishment as a major deal. Alcohol and drugs are often involved when crimes are committed. With this being said, judgment is impaired. Generally, individuals more likely associate shame and embarrassment to illegal acts rather that the punishment (Berger, Free, and Searles 2009). Another factor taking control over the effect of deterrence is the lack of knowledge. Individuals are not aware of the exact punishment when committing a crime. Finally, prison has becoming less stigmatizing leading to less of a deterrent effect. Individuals are failing to see prison as a harsh place to be (O’Brien Lecture). Closely relating to deterrence, incapacitation is also an ineffective way to handle the growing crime

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In his book, The Land of Open Graves, Jason De Leon explores the policy of ‘Prevention through Deterrence,’ implemented by the government of the US, which aims at decreasing the number of undocumented migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. Prevention through Deterrence focuses on implementing strict border policies on ports of entry, successfully diverging the traffic to the deadly Arizona desert, where migrants have to hide from the border patrol and deal with the climate at the same time. Although the policy was supposedly implemented to decrease the number of people taking up the journey, it has rather increased the scale of sufferings of the migrants, having little or no effect on their number. The impact of the desert often results in…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “I see no alternative but to conclude that capital punishment cannot be justified on the basis of its deterrent effect” (Marshall,1972). Proving that is really is not a deterrence. Although one example of where capital punishment could be seen as an effective possible deterrent would be in The District of Columbia which has no death penalty has a very high rate of homicides. There are other deterrents to crime other than Capital Punishment, there is incarceration, fines, moral prohibitions and many others. One study, found that the elevated levels of assurance of arrest on crime lowered the burglary rate in Canada (Zedlewski, 1983).…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Incarceration is a deterrent as these incarcerations as prisons are big business…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The first article is written by Candace McCoy (2010) called “Do Drug Courts Work? For What, Compared to What? Qualitative Results from a Natural Experiment” and the second article is called “The impact of adult drug courts on crime and incarceration: findings from a multi-site quasi-experimental design” by Michael Rempel, Mia Green, and Dana Kralstein in 2012. In addition, the last article is by Christopher J. Sullivan and Zachary K. Hamilton (2007) called “exploring careers in deviance: a joint trajectory analysis of criminal behavior and substance use in an offender population” from the Taylor & Francis Group.…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Some would agree that providing severe sentencing options would deter some offenders from engaging in crime. However, research is limited in regard to the direct impact that three strikes laws have on deterring crime. Proponents of these laws have cited empirical evidence that claims prisoners do acquire about their strike status, thus indicating a deterrent effect, however, this claim remains questionable due to a lack of statistical support. An analysis conducted by the RAND Corporation during the late 90’s, assumed that three strikes would not have a deterrent effect on potential offenders, but would have an incapacitate effect by reducing the number of felonies committed by adults in California between 22 and 34 percent (Dickey & Hollenhorst, 1995). In a follow-up assessment, RAND indicated that incarcerating people does prevent them from engaging in crime, but raised concern about the millions of dollars invested in prisons as the result of three strikes offenders, to prevent 60 crimes annually (Dickey & Hollenhorst,…

    • 1494 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Punishments other than prison or jail time place serious demands on offenders and provide them with intensive court and community supervision. Just because a certain punishment does not involve time in prison or jail does not mean it is soft on crime. Alternatives to incarceration can repair harms suffered by victims,…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A significant number of offenders have been convicted of drug related offenses, many of which have entered the United States’ court system, jails, and prisons. Of these offenders many are suffering from drug related addictions (Journal of Experimental Criminology). Drug use and crime have continuously been of increasing concern. Drug abuse is becoming much more prevalent, as drugs are becoming more readily accessible. Research shows that incarceration of offenders charged with drug-related crimes has had very little impact on recidivism rates (Journal of Experimental Criminology).…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With labeling theory it is shown that placing a label such as a criminal on an individual, it will not deter an individual from crime, but make it more likely that the individual will continue or start this behavior and more toward crime. It is discussed that applying a label of a deviant on another makes them more likely to gravitate toward this label and exhibit behavior that goes along with the label. This is a contrast to how the deterrence theory would view criminal punishment. Deterrence theory would see this as a possibility to deter crime as it could use an individual for general deterrence. By labeling the individual as an offender (possible even labeling them as a specific type of offender), the deterrence theory can make an example out of the individual with the type of sanction that is given.…

    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    According to the Unit 5a lecture by Dr. Hoffmann, the Deterrence Theory is the fear of being punished by the criminal justice system will play a part in deterring the engagement of illegal activities. The fear of punishment will outweigh the potential benefit of the behavior (Hoffmann, Unit 5a Lecture). The College of Charleston is an open campus so it is prone to a lot of illegal drug activities. The selling of prescription drugs of all forms is one of them. The lecture states that there are necessary conditions for punishment to deter crime.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The goals can be financial, pleasure, or some other beneficial result. The Rational Choice Theory perspective as presented by Cornish and Clark (1985) is based upon three concepts; (one) criminal offenders are rational and make choices and decisions that benefit themselves; (two) a crime- specific focus is required; and (three) there is a distinction between choices related to criminal involvement and decisions related to criminal events. The theory of rational choice theory examines offender decision making and the factors that affect it such as assessments of risks, rewards, and morality of various behaviors (Clarke, 1983). The balance between likely risks and rewards influences offenders target selection (Clarke, 1983). According to Brantingham and Brantingham (1984), the level of risks is one of the factors that make a target good or bad.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 5 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminal Sentencing Essay

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Deterrence can be defined as sanctioning convicted offenders to reduce crime by…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Rigg V Palmer Case Summary

    • 1785 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Deterrence is a concept that is central to lawmaking, it encourages lawmakers to create laws with punishments that discourage others from committing crimes. In this case, the court needs to send a message to society that citizens are unable to benefit from…

    • 1785 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ARTIFACT 1 Ineffective Punishment Crime prevention is equally, if not more important the punishing those who commit the crimes. In a world where our constant need for growth is met with smarter and more dangerous criminals, we need to take more drastic steps to protect the innocent citizens of this country. Even if the means to do so, may seem extreme. Going to prison is thought to deter criminals from committing any crimes.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tertiary prevention focuses on the offender after crime has happen, with the main focus being on deterrence and rehabilitation to prevent from re-offending. Tertiary prevention reduces the recidivism rate and insures that appropriate steps are taken so that the victim is not re-victimized. In the United States the primary form of tertiary prevention is incapacitation. Tertiary prevention does not stop criminals from committing crimes after their release but protects the population from victimization of criminals. Specific deterrence is achieved by instilling fear into individuals that are being punished with the prevention of the individual from future violations of the law.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout the world many individual commit crimes for a multitude of reasons. Within today’s society it is easier for people to commit crime’s lack of job opportunity, peer pressure, high unemployment, family issues, and environment the person grown up in effect the decision that they make. But they are some people who commit crime just for their own benefits with no regard for other life some offenders just did not think of the consequences some people commit crimes to make fast money They get involved in selling drugs and robbery rather than work a nine to five and they have the opportunity and are not facing unemployment peer pressure family issues or a product of their environment. But still refuse to take it just to try to do things the easier way. Also the ways the prison system is set up the people that get arrested…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays

Related Topics