A Social Trust Theory of Criminal Law, Part III
The first two posts in this series are here and here. In this concluding post, I will share some thoughts regarding the various mechanisms by which criminal law potentially enhances social trust.
Deterrence: The criminal law’s deterrent threats help to make people feel more secure. It seems to be a matter of widely shared intuition, and not without basis, that the possibility of punishment will cause many individuals to think twice before harming or endangering others. The difficulty with deterrence is this: just because the threat of some punishment tends to reduce the frequency of undesirable conduct or outcomes does not mean that the threat of more punishment will achieve further gains.