ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the general use and effectiveness of deterrence to decide whether the death penalty could add enough deterrence to be warranted. Deterrence depends on the likelihood and on the regularity—not on the rationality—of human responses to danger; and further on the possibility of reinforcing internal controls by vicarious external experiences. Punishments deter those who have not violated the law for the same reasons—and in the same degrees as do natural dangers. Even though its effectiveness seems obvious, punishment as a deterrent has fallen into disrepute. And logically, it is quite consistent with the postulated deterrent effect of capital punishment that there be less homicide after abolition: with retention there might have been still less. It is enough to affirm that the severity of the penalty may influence some potential criminals, and that the added severity of the death penalty adds to deterrence, or may do so.
