Specific Deterrence vs. General Deterrence, Definitions

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IDENTIFICATIONS

1) Specific Deterrence vs. General Deterrence: The purpose of punishing and threatening to punish civilians is to diminish or at least limit the frequency of societies’ criminal activity, in terms of deterrence. The wholly aim of deterrence is to obstruct an individual’s potential offense by means of insertion of fear. Specific deterrence solely applies to individuals who have been administered with some type of punishment, that ultimately render him/her with fear of being penalized again when he contemplates on offending in the future. On the other hand, general deterrence applies to the public at large. It refers to a general understanding and fear that certain unlawful behaviors will be followed upon by a punishment.

2) Dynamic Concentration: This strategy suggests that dynamically concentration of punitive resources will reduce both punishment and crime, by tipping society from a high-crime equilibrium to a low-crime equilibrium. This can be accomplished, by issuing potent threats to a subset of criminals and administering them[threats] when offenses occur, e...

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