ABSTRACT
Celerity—meaning the swiftness of punishment—is arguably the most overlooked element of deterrence theory. Scholars often neglect discussing it, at least in part, because of the perception that we know so little about it—a perception that is not rooted in reality. Accordingly, in this chapter we review both the criminological literature and the body of studies produced in psychology laboratories on the effects of the timing of punishment. Collectively, this work indicates that the “celerity effect” of deterrence tends to decay when the punishment is delayed at all after the offending behavior—even if by a matter of minutes or even seconds. The core implications are that implementing celerity of punishment into the criminal justice system is a practical impossibility, and that thinking about celerity is likely to be most useful outside the confines of the criminal justice system (e.g., the supervision and socialization of children). We conclude with a call for a broader discussion of how criminologists should go about deciding which ideas do or do not have the weight of empirical evidence on their side.
