Criminal Deterrence Criminological Study

Criminal deterrence will continue to be a valuable part of criminological studies. The rational choice perspective has expanded tremendously in the last few decades. It allows criminologist to examine the reasoning process of not only offenders, but the victims as well. The concept of deterrence assumes a much higher degree of rationality. Deterrence doctrine uses the three functions of certainty, severity, and speed of punishment as key elements in the rational decision making process aimed at deciding between criminal and non-criminal paths of conduct (2013). The death penalty does serve as a deterrence from crime. But studies have indicated this might not be the case for every offender. But I would argue that even the deterrence of one individual