• jaselle@lemmy.ca
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          12 days ago

          Well if you ever ask someone, “would you ever commit a crime iff you knew you could get away with it” and they say yes, you’ll have found at least one example of a successfully deterred crime.

            • jaselle@lemmy.ca
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              12 days ago

              Maybe we’re disagreeing on what “deterrent” means. I just mean “an incentive not to commit a crime,” not “something that absolutely prevents crime.” If you’re just trying to prove it’s an incentive at all, it’s pretty easy as you only need to find one example of somebody who decided against committing a crime for fear of police.

                • jaselle@lemmy.ca
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                  12 days ago

                  OK, but then you’re just saying it’s purely down to your prior whether or not you think police are an effective deterrent. Which is not exactly a compelling argument against police. I was kind of hoping you had something more to lean on than that.