I was writing up a reply for another thread (a thread about whether a certain investigative method was justified to identify the perpetrator of a murder). I wrote and wrote for about a thousand words, until I realized I'd gone way off the topic. Apparently I had more to say about preventing murder, than punishing murderers. And not much at all to say about the methods of investigation.
It seems I care a lot more about preventing murder than punishing murderers. What a lily-livered little liberal I am.
The detection and prosecution of murder is certainly one way of preventing murder. It doesn't prevent that particular murder of course, but the high probability of an investigation by police and (lower, but still quite high) probability of conviction and punishment by judiciary, demonstrates to anyone considering the act of murder that they will very likely suffer for it. Punishment of today's crime by person A, puts the fear of punishment on person B who may be considering the same crime. It's a disincentive (though not a certain one) disincentives are effective just as incentives (though uncertain) are effective at changing behaviour.
OK, so punishment and the threat of punishment and the carrying through of the threat of punishment, do reduce the incidence of murder. There is much debate about how harsh the punishments should be, and what the standard of proof should be, but obviously no amount of punishment and no certainty of punishment will reduce the murder rate much more than the already harsh punishments and already high conviction rates for murder.
What other strategies could government pursue to reduce the incidence of murder?
I'm a bit shocked to discover how little I know about the causes of murder. I've been reading, but all I get is that people of low intelligence or with mental health problems are more likely to commit murder, poor people or people living in poor neighbourhoods are more likely to commit murder, and people who are socially isolated (not necessarily poor or with mental problems) are also likely to commit murder.
So there's a broad socialist agenda of reducing social and economic inequality, providing health care which includes mental health care as a matter of course, and government support of all kinds of clubs and community initiatives which might help estranged individuals reconnect with society. I'll put that as my method to prevent murders. It goes far beyond that purpose of course, and requires far more intervention by government than a strategy purely to reduce the rate of murder.
Perhaps you smart people can suggest a more targeted way to prevent murders, which doesn't involve harsher punishments after the fact, doesn't require government to tackle a much wider social problem, and doesn't require every citizen to be fitted with a tracking/immobilization collar at birth?
