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TheOtherDave comments on Crime and punishment - Less Wrong
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Comments (189)
Can you unpack where you're getting the "because it's more painful" clause?
I mean, I assume you're talking about revealed preferences here, where the fact that X happens and I don't stop it is evidence that I'm in favor of X. I don't entirely buy that, but I don't think discussing it will be productive.
But I don't see how you can use revealed preferences as evidence of my putative reasons for being in favor of X.
I've heard a number of Americans say that. I haven't heard argument against it, and there's a lot of sentiment against making prison conditions more humane.
I don't have statistics from polls-- I don't know if polls have been taken on that question-- but I think I'm making a reasonable deduction.
I asked about this in my livejournal, and some people have run into that argument (one used it in the tactical way I imagined), and some haven't.
I'm concluding that it's within the range of possible beliefs for Americans, but not very common. It may have been more common in the past than it is now.
Fascinating! I sorta wish I'd ever heard anyone say that, I'd really want to know how much money they're willing to spend every year on causing pain to convicted criminals.
I wonder if there's a generational difference. I believe I'm rather older (age 57) than the typical LessWronger.
Opponents to capital punishment, like Geoffrey Robertson QC, argue that it is "much worse for an individual to spend the rest of their life in prison than to be executed immediately"
That's the only example I've been able to find in about 15 minutes of googling (and British, not American), so it may be a less common view than I thought. Or maybe I don't have the right search terms.