03-26-2012, 11:16 PM
$tevie wrote:
The idea is that when you are contemplating bludgeoning someone to death because you hate them, that you are forced to ask yourself "is this going to be gratifying enough to justify the fact that I am going to have years and years piled onto my sentence because my motive was hate?
I have yet to see an authoritative study conclude that increased penalties deter violent crimes of any classification.
Rather, people who study the issue find that there is no deterrence at all, unless you count the dearth of repeat-offenses when the offender is languishing behind bars.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/t...minal.html