I’m saddened that - as a society - we can’t seem to get away from the idea that the answer to crime is to “be tough on crime.” This recall seems to be an expression of our basic urge to punish, rather than any real desire to address the problems that lie at the root of most crime. We’ve tried the “tough on crime” approach for so many years, and all it’s really done is inflate the prison population (with mostly non-wh…
There is actually a very real concept that known penalties deters crime. If you stop any significant punishment, criminals are aware, emboldened, and crime increases. Milwaukee is recently reeling in thousands of reckless car thefts, and this is what the perps say themselves:
"I know people who have got 200 car thefts, 300 car thefts."
Interviewer: "Have you thought about how you would do that time?"
"Shit, you only get 3 weeks. It's a misdemeanor!"
Interviewer: "You only do 3 weeks for stealing a car?"
"Hell ya, it's a misdemeanor."