Do longer prison sentences reduce crime?
The only thing we know is that people who are locked up can’t hurt people in the community. Incapacitation is about the only thing that prisons can guarantee, unless a person escapes.
According to James Q. Wison: "…burglary, car-theft, and robbery rates are lower in the United States than in England. The difference results not from willingness to send convicted offenders to prison, which is about the same in both countries, but in how long America keeps them behind bars. For the same offense, you will spend more time in prison here than in England."
Scientists have still been unable to determine whether or not sentence length directly correlates with an individuals propensity towards crime. Prison is thought to serve the four basic goals of the criminal justice system: to rehabilitate the offender; to restrain him or her from being able to commit another crime; to get revenge against the offender; and to deter him or her and the public from committing similar crimes. Many criminal offenders commit the same or similar crimes after they are released from prison, which may indicate that prison does not actually teach criminals a lesson. Studies have found that the thing that actually reduces crime the most is a persons age. As the saying says with age comes wisdom, and most people committing crimes are under thirty-five. For this reason, it can be suggested that keeping criminals behind bars until they are middle-aged may help reduce crime rates. Researchers have also found that a person who spends more time in prison may be able to
