The USA has high punishments for murder but less then 50% of murder investigations are solved.
Germany has much lower punishments for murder, but around 90% of murder investigations are solved.
Which of these do you think is the greater deterrence?
Germany has much lower punishments for murder, but around 90% of murder investigations are solved.
Which of these do you think is the greater deterrence?
Also, now that Germany has...diversity...the crime rate went up pretty significantly.
So I would say, all in all, that homogenous populations are the greatest deterrence, followed by the magnitude of punishment being significantly more important at a societal level, though the risk of getting caught dominates the thought process for regulatory/low-punishment crimes.
When punishments are so disproportionately high a good chunk of the ofenders will stop caring. The preventative effect is gone, it’s more an incentive to escalate the crime to a level where it matches the punishment.