ABSTRACT
Five key lessons stand out from work on the deterrent effects of punishment in the half century since publication of Gary Becker’s classic article. First, harsher punishments deter violent, property, and drug crimes no more effectively than lesser ones. Second, sentences to imprisonment, all else about particular offenders being equal, do not reduce the likelihood of reoffending but instead appear to increase it. Third, the death penalty is not more effective as a deterrent to homicide than are other available punishments. Fourth, in economists’ theories, increases in the certainty or severity of punishment should increase deterrent effects, but mandatory minimum sentences, lengthy prison terms, and laws increasing sentence severity have in practice failed to do so. Fifth, police efforts to increase the likelihood of identification and apprehension of offenders appear to decrease the incidence of crime.
