Punishment

Clive R Hollin

If punishment is a likely consequence of crime, it follows that the population at large should be deterred from committing crimes in order to avoid being punished. The effectiveness of this proposition is arguably reflected in national crime rates: If punishment is seen to be done, then the crime rate should remain reasonably con- stant. However, the rate at which crimes are committed are subject to many diverse influences, such as levels of employment and demographic fluctuations; so that in the main, the national crime rate is a blunt measure of criminal justice practice. The general deterrent hypothesis has been tested using the special case of the death penalty. A pre–post effect can be calculated for countries that abolish the death penalty or, as with New Zealand, where over a period of years the death penalty is abolished, brought back, and then finally abol- ished. The complexities of the analyses, necessarily spanning long periods of time, have produced conflicting findings regarding the presence and size of any deterrent effect of capital punishment.