Punishment: Its Severity and Certainty

Abstract

The role of punishment in preventing crime has again become a topic of discussion.For some time, however, "sociologists and enlightened jurists showed a tendency to reject Bentham's 'classical' hypothesis that man avoids criminal behavior if that behavior elicits swift, severe and certain punishment."' History has shown, critics contend, that punishment has never reduced crime to any marked degree. 4 In Eighteenth Century England, for example, there were over 350 capital offenses, including the theft of a handkerchief, cutting down a cherry tree, letter stealing, forgery, sheep stealing, associating with gypsies and pickpocketing.-Despitethese severe penalties, crime rates continued to rise.A similar situation is also said to have existed in Colonial America where over a dozen offenses were punishable by death.Historical examinations of homicide rates before and after the abolition of the death penalty have also questioned the efficacy of capital punishment.International investigations have generally concluded that homicide rates and the death penalty are independent factors.'Similarly, longitudinal investigations of states in this country have led to similar conclusions: "There is no clear evidence

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