What Are The Three Aspects Of The Deterrence Theory Of Crime

Since modern society is plagued with “get rich quick schemes” such as gambling, the lottery, and cryptocurrency; what is preventing a rampant surge in crime? At face value, many people would assume that most don’t consider committing a crime. How could this be true when the benefits of crime can be exceptionally appealing? The answer to this can be found through the fundamental ideas of deterrence theory. Although crime can be enticing to many people, the three aspects of the deterrence theory; certainty, celerity, and severity can explain why many people's desires toward crime are never pursued. Within the three deterrents of the theory, the most potent component is the certainty aspect. The certainty component describes the effectiveness of ensuring a punishment is given to a perpetrator. This insurance of punishment distills a fear of facing a consequence and greatly decreases a person's desire to commit a crime. In

When a person is punished quickly after committing a crime the swiftness makes them associate their penalty with the harmful behavior. When too much time is spent between the crime and the punishment, “the potential for the association to form in one’s mind is lost and ultimately the punishment—regardless of how certain or severe it is—risks losing its bite” (Pratt 4). This means that celerity is essential to having the criminal ruminate on their past action. An example of how the thinking process works with celerity can be depicted in the Milgram experiment. In this experiment, there was a “teacher” and a “learner”. The learner would suffer shocks for answering questions incorrectly. This would cause them to think through the questions because the pain would be instant when the test was “failed”. This instant punishment makes repeat offenders reconsider their criminal actions and deters them from future criminal