[ExI] free-will, determinism, crime and punishment

[Michael M. Butler]

On 8/22/07, gts <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:36:02 -0400, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> > I admit to being confused on this point as well. Speaking of
> > deterrence alone, which consequence of conviction is more
> > to be feared:  death or a life sentence?
>
> Curiously, states that impose the death penalty have higher homicide rates
> than those that don't. And the differences are quite large.
>
> The total number of yearly executions rose over the last ten years.
> Although this increase in executions correlated with a decreased national
> homicide rate, suggesting a possible deterrence effect, it's also true
> that during this time the gap between the murder rate in death penalty
> states and non-death penalty states grew progressively larger. By 2005 the
> murder rate was a whopping 46% higher in death penalty states than in non
> death penalty states!

You can imply-by-assertion a causal relationship if you want, but
correlation, last time I heard, is not causation.

I conjecture that (to name two) the maintenance of the
outlaw/"gangsta" role model as a profit center for media and a
cultural focus for disaffected youth could be contributing. So could
any "disappearance of the middle class" effect that some analysts
report. Are those homogeneous across the 50 states? I'm not at all
sure they are. Gangsta rap and thug culture have been [prominent for
just about 15 years. What's the median age of the convicted murderers
in each of the 50 states, I wonder?

Include and cancel those effects, won't you? The FBI is not in that
business, though they might include age breakdowns.

I'd also want to look at the trends over longer periods than 10 years,
since the Supreme Court decisions that decided capital punishment was
unconstitutional as practiced back them came out in 1972 and 1976.

Off topic: this is not dissimilar from the question of whether CO2
levels lead or follow environmental warming.

Or is my demurral simply boring you? :) By the way, I thank you for
not denying that you think I require rehabilitation. It's refreshing
to know where we stand with each other: I'm in the same boat with
someone wearing a bomb vest. :)

-- 
         Michael M. Butler  :  m m b u t l e r  ( a t )  g m a i l . c o m
         "I'm going to get over this some time. Might as well be now."