Let a thousand guilty men go to save 1 innocent person

[adjkgh]

i seriosuly don't see what's really hard about the decision (perhaps this is only IMO). if you let go 1,000 criminals, they would kill even MORE innocent people.
rephrase: would you rather have more than 1 innocent person die or just 1 innocent person go to jail?

 

[WhiteWolf]

If it is just 1:1, then it would change the dynamics of it. That murderer may not neccessarily kill again. So most people would save the innocent man.

 

[Smurf]

lol, well, no offense, but I don't buy that. Because everytime someone steals something, they plan it to where they don't get caught for a reason.

That's kind of what they're saying. When you want to commit a crime you try to find a way not to get caught, instead of just giving up and not doing it.

 

[WhiteWolf]

And the government is their deterent. That is why I don't buy that it is proven that the government is not an effective deterant. The government makes the laws and the punishment, thus, the government stops people from stealing and such.

 

[loseyourname]

I think that smurf's claim does have the most validity of the commission of particularly violent crimes, like murder. I'm not sure what kind of statistics are out there on this, but from what I've heard, these are usually crimes of passion. Deterrence doesn't work to prevent a crime of passion; it only works to prevent well thought-out, clearly premeditated crimes.* Since these are the crimes that the death penalty is being doled out for, deterrence probably isn't having much of an effect. Of course, don't take my word for it without statistical backing. Maybe smurf can provide us with some of this, since it's his claim.

*I don't mean premeditation in the legal sense. The barrier for charging murder one is painfully low. You only have to have a minute of thought that you want to kill someone, and it can happen directly before actually doing it. I think this still qualifies as a crime of passion in the relevant sense, even if legally it is considered premeditation.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Murder perhaps, but this question didnt really specify murder, did it? I forget, I just thought it was just some serious crime. Since it was hypothetical, I didnt consider passion or not, but practically, I believe you are correct.