"Winston_Smith" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Sep 2015 08:15:24 -0700, trader_4 wrote:

The other reason for criminal convictions is punishment,
regardless of deterrence. If you have no criminal laws
covering things like this, then it's open season and and
a whole lot of people who are already cutting corners,
going to the edge of what's legal or beyond, will just go
further.

Someone somewhere said it's not the severity of the punishment
that deters crime, but the certainty of it.

My crim. prof didn't believe much in deterrence and pointed out that in
Merry Olde England "Pickpockets picked pockets at the hangings of
pickpockets."

People were so entranced by watching someone *else* dying that they became
excellent targets for pickpockets.

It's also been shown that it's very hard to deter crimes of passion because
people are often way out of their minds when they kill lovers, spouses,
children, etc.

--
Bobby G.