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posted by martyb on Friday June 01 2018, @04:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the pointed-question dept.

A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.

Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.

[...] He said laws designed to reduce the availability of weapons to young would-be offenders had had “almost no effect”, since the vast majority had merely taken knives from a cutlery drawer.

[...] He asked: “But why we do need eight-inch or ten-inch kitchen knives with points?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/27/knives-sharp-filing-solution-soaring-violent-crime-judge-says/


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @07:58AM (29 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @07:58AM (#687146)

    And pray tell, how does that help a victim? Just about every study shows that criminals are not deterred by longer, harsher sentences.

    Really? How many subsequent murders are committed by a murderer doing a real life sentence? Seems like a successful deterrent to me so "just about every study" is clearly wrong.

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @09:03AM (26 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @09:03AM (#687159)

    No, there's a difference between "deterrent" and "stopping repeat offenders".

    If we had a perfect deterrent, there would be no crimes. If we had a perfect way of stopping repeat offenders, there will still be plenty of crime. As demonstrated by e.g. several US states with the death penalty.

    • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday June 01 2018, @09:12AM (24 children)

      by Wootery (2341) on Friday June 01 2018, @09:12AM (#687160)

      If we had a perfect deterrent, there would be no crimes.

      This is confused.

      Are you saying deterrence can in principle be 100% effective? That doesn't seem right. Even with torturous capital punishment and good enforcement, crime still happens. Humans are not perfectly rational beings. We're not even close.

      If by 'perfect deterrent' you mean 'some system whereby no crime happens', you aren't talking about deterrence, you're talking (circularly) about some other kind of hypothetical perfect crime-prevention system.

      • (Score: 1) by r_a_trip on Friday June 01 2018, @12:15PM

        by r_a_trip (5276) on Friday June 01 2018, @12:15PM (#687202)

        >hypothetical perfect crime-prevention system

        Precrime.

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 01 2018, @04:39PM (4 children)

        by tangomargarine (667) on Friday June 01 2018, @04:39PM (#687311)

        You're fixating on an irrelevant part of this hypothetical. AC never spoke on whether a perfect deterrent was plausible or likely.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday June 02 2018, @02:51PM (3 children)

          by Wootery (2341) on Saturday June 02 2018, @02:51PM (#687692)

          No, it's a genuinely invalid premise to AC's point. Even if we maximise deterrence to its hypothetical ideal, we still wouldn't bring crime to zero.

          It's like saying Suppose my car has a perfect steering-wheel and then continuing and given that we're supposing my car is perfect...

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday June 04 2018, @03:39PM (2 children)

            by tangomargarine (667) on Monday June 04 2018, @03:39PM (#688409)

            You apparently don't understand how hypotheticals work.

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
            • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday June 05 2018, @09:27AM (1 child)

              by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday June 05 2018, @09:27AM (#688785)

              No, I appear to be the only one who does. The point of a thought-experiment is to carefully explore the consequences of a hypothetical situation. It is exactly the right time to be explicit about definitions, and to insist on clear reasoning when we use terms like 'perfect'. Which is exactly what I (and apparently I alone) am doing.

              No-one has pointed out anything wrong with my reasoning here, they've just ignored my point that some crime cannot be prevented by any deterrence.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:23PM

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:23PM (#688867) Journal

                No, I appear to be the only one who does.

                [...]

                No-one has pointed out anything wrong with my reasoning here, they've just ignored my point that some crime cannot be prevented by any deterrence.

                No one has ignored that point. In fact, several posters have gone out of their way to agree on that point for real world deterrence (of the sorts we can come up with).

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Friday June 01 2018, @07:44PM (4 children)

        by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday June 01 2018, @07:44PM (#687411) Homepage

        You're missing the point. Usng the word "if" in a hypothetical doesn't mean to imply it's plausible or even possible.

        --
        systemd is Roko's Basilisk
        • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:08PM (3 children)

          by Wootery (2341) on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:08PM (#687701)

          I just replied to tangomargarine who made the same point.

          • (Score: 2, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday June 03 2018, @12:16PM (2 children)

            by wonkey_monkey (279) on Sunday June 03 2018, @12:16PM (#687989) Homepage

            And you're still missing the point.

            --
            systemd is Roko's Basilisk
            • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Wootery on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:15AM (1 child)

              by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:15AM (#688793)

              So go ahead and make a point...

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:06AM (12 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:06AM (#687555) Journal

        If we had a perfect deterrent, there would be no crimes.

        [...] Are you saying deterrence can in principle be 100% effective?

        He is saying perfect deterrence would be. Not much point in disagreeing because it's perfect not real world imperfect deterrence.

        • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:02PM (11 children)

          by Wootery (2341) on Saturday June 02 2018, @03:02PM (#687698)

          He is saying perfect deterrence would be

          And that was exactly my point: it wouldn't.

          Even if we maximise deterrence to its hypothetical ideal, we still wouldn't bring crime to zero. Humans are not rational actors.

          It's like saying With a perfect system of deterrence, ants will no longer bite us. It's plainly untrue. An ant is going to do what an ant will do, whether or not you're standing ready to destroy his colony. Similarly, deterrence is of limited use against crimes of passion and desperation.

          If we have some hypothetical system which does bring crime to zero, it's clearly not purely deterrence-based.

          Not much point in disagreeing because it's perfect not real world imperfect deterrence.

          There is a point in disagreeing, because the thought-experiment is invalid. If all thought experiments were useless simple because they aren't 'real world', we wouldn't bother using them in the first place.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 02 2018, @11:00PM (10 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 02 2018, @11:00PM (#687832) Journal

            Even if we maximise deterrence to its hypothetical ideal, we still wouldn't bring crime to zero.

            Actually we would. Because any crime at all indicates that the level of deterrence wasn't at the hypothetical ideal.

            With a perfect system of deterrence, ants will no longer bite us.

            And that would be right.

            • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Sunday June 03 2018, @12:13AM (9 children)

              by Wootery (2341) on Sunday June 03 2018, @12:13AM (#687854)

              You're so focused on the 'hypothetical' and 'perfect' that you're ignoring what the word 'deterrence' means. It doesn't mean Any and all crime-prevention systems. Its definition is narrower than that.

              Like I said elsewhere in the thread: it's like saying Suppose my car has a perfect steering-wheel and then continuing and given that we're supposing my car is perfect...

              Because any crime at all indicates that the level of deterrence wasn't at the hypothetical ideal.

              No, it does not. You are wrongly assuming that there is no such thing as a crime which cannot be prevented by systems of deterrence. I have already explained at some length why this assumption makes no sense (indeed, we know it is false), but I'll give it another go.

              An ideal system of deterrence is, rather trivially, a system that maximally deters crime by means of reliably imposing harsh negative consequences on guilty parties (and not on the innocent).

              Certain categories of crime can be prevented by deterrence. Organised crime would be reduced to zero, for instance.

              Crimes of passion, however, cannot be prevented by deterrence.

              And that would be right.

              If we follow this line of thinking, we end up concluding that under a perfect system of deterrence, we would be protected from inconvenient weather, right? Otherwise the system couldn't truly be perfect, right?

              This is nonsense, of course. Weather is unresponsive to the threat of punishment. Ants are similarly unresponsive. Enraged and psychotic human beings can be similarly unresponsive.

              Consider the man who, on discovering his wife's infidelity, murders her in a blind rage and then commits suicide. Our perfect system of deterrence would not prevent this from happening.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:17AM (8 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:17AM (#687929) Journal
                You don't seem to get what "perfect" means. Deterring emotional states that could lead to crimes of passion would be trivial for such a system. Things like "pre-crime" would be a matter of course because once again, it's perfect. It's not worth arguing this further.
                • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Sunday June 03 2018, @10:58AM (7 children)

                  by Wootery (2341) on Sunday June 03 2018, @10:58AM (#687973)

                  Did you even bother to read my comment? Rather than responding to my points, you're unthinkingly parroting your old position again and again. Is that really the best you can do?

                  For what feels like the millionth time: a system which prevents emotions arising in the first place, cannot possibly meet the definition of 'deterrence'. Such a system couldn't possibly be based on imposing negative consequences for the commission of crime (which is the definition of deterrence).

                  It is simply not the case that as the effectiveness of a system of deterrence approaches its upper limit, the crime-rate approaches zero.

                  Do you disagree with my definition of 'deterrence'? If so, why don't you just say so? If not, you're not making any sense.

                  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 04 2018, @02:48AM (6 children)

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 04 2018, @02:48AM (#688194) Journal
                    Sorry, perfect deterrence covers the points you've made so far. It wasn't even worth your brain power to try to bypass things in such easy to foil ways. Maybe the omniscient unicorns instinctively detect when you're about to commit a crime of passion and instantly reduce you to petrified, pants-wetting terror. The mental state is thus prevented by deterrence as expected.

                    It is simply not the case that as the effectiveness of a system of deterrence approaches its upper limit, the crime-rate approaches zero.

                    Again, we're not speaking of real world deterrence. I have no idea why you bothered to tilt at this imaginary windmill in the first place, but it is an utter waste of your time. By definition, perfect deterrence means no violations of the deterrence occur. The deterrence would not be perfect otherwise. Your arguments are meaningless in the face of semantics.

                    • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:23AM (5 children)

                      by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:23AM (#688794)

                      detect

                      If it detects, it isn't deterrence.

                      For heaven's sake, look at the definition I just gave. Do you disagree with it, or not?

                      There's a reason I already asked you that question...

                      By definition, perfect deterrence means no violations of the deterrence occur.

                      Ah, then we're speaking of different things. That's our whole disagreement, then. That took long enough.

                      Your definition is a contradiction - by definition, it cannot exist (due to the existence of crimes which cannot ever be prevented by deterrence). There's no point trying to build a thought-experiment around a contradiction. It's like trying to reason about the inverse of a non-square matrix.

                      I was going with a different meaning of 'perfect deterrence', where it instead means it cannot be made any more effective. Such a system would not reduce crime to zero, for the reason I've repeatedly stated.

                      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:12PM

                        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:12PM (#688860) Journal

                        If it detects, it isn't deterrence.

                        Deterrence is a complex process which does many things, including detection. You can't deter, if your deterrence process doesn't understand what crime is. You can't deter, if your deterrence process can't detect crime. This is silly to continue.

                        Once again, your argument is semantically invalid. You are claiming that perfect deterrence is imperfect and then giving a bunch of irrelevant reasons why. A perfect process is not a real world process, and thus doesn't follow those rules. It is not constrained by anything you can come up with - by definition. You're not even wrong here.

                        Your definition is a contradiction

                        Keep in mind this whole thing started because someone started babbling about "perfect deterrence" in the first place.

                        I was going with a different meaning of 'perfect deterrence', where it instead means it cannot be made any more effective. Such a system would not reduce crime to zero, for the reason I've repeatedly stated.

                        Words have meaning.

                      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:34PM (3 children)

                        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:34PM (#688871) Journal

                        I was going with a different meaning

                        More on this. When it became clear that nobody else was going with that meaning, why continue butting heads? It would have been simple to describe explicitly the definition you used ("What I mean here is"), instead of coyly dragging this out and speculating ad naseum on why you're the only smart person in the thread. You have ten posts on this so far, and you have yet to state what you mean by "perfect deterrence".

                        • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:54PM (2 children)

                          by Wootery (2341) on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:54PM (#699818)

                          You have ten posts on this so far, and you have yet to state what you mean by "perfect deterrence".

                          Well, yes, I did. Repeatedly. I'll quote you the exact words and give you a link to the comment, but somehow I doubt you'll bother to take it on board.

                          An ideal system of deterrence is, rather trivially, a system that maximally deters crime by means of reliably imposing harsh negative consequences on guilty parties (and not on the innocent).

                          Certain categories of crime can be prevented by deterrence. Organised crime would be reduced to zero, for instance.

                          Crimes of passion, however, cannot be prevented by deterrence.

                          Source. [soylentnews.org]

                          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 29 2018, @04:21AM (1 child)

                            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 29 2018, @04:21AM (#700114) Journal

                            An ideal system of deterrence is, rather trivially, a system that maximally deters crime by means of reliably imposing harsh negative consequences on guilty parties (and not on the innocent).

                            And of course, if a system doesn't fully deter crime, then it is not maximal and hence, not ideal. You're begging the question by assuming that a perfect (or "ideal") system is not perfect and going from there. This has nothing to do with the futility of designing perfect systems. If you have a system and it allows for flaws that the system is intended to prevent, then it is not perfect. That's all there is to it.

                            Further, I don't agree with even your assertion that you defined a "perfect" system above. You already moved the goalposts by introducing constraints on the operation of the system. It's no longer perfect.

                            • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday June 30 2018, @04:23PM

                              by Wootery (2341) on Saturday June 30 2018, @04:23PM (#700709)

                              And of course, if a system doesn't fully deter crime, then it is not maximal and hence, not ideal.

                              Wrong. As I have already explained to you, we are discussing an ideal system of deterrence, which is more constrained than merely a crime-prevention system.

                              The word 'deterrence' exists for a reason. It has a specific meaning.

                              Deterrence isn't the only means of reducing crime, and deterrence alone cannot reduce crime to zero. I have repeatedly explained this point: a crime of passion cannot be prevented by deterrence, as we aren't dealing with a rational actor. If your system simply jumps in and tasers our would-be-criminal, that isn't deterrence, that's force-based prevention.

                              You're begging the question by assuming that a perfect (or "ideal") system is not perfect and going from there.

                              Wrong. I am using 'ideal system of deterrence' in the sense of a system of deterrence that cannot be further improved, without making into something other than a system of deterrence. You are using it in an imprecise sense where it must by definition reduce crime to zero, whether or not it still actually qualifies as a system of deterrence (as opposed to some other kind of crime-prevention system).

                              If you have a system and it allows for flaws that the system is intended to prevent, then it is not perfect. That's all there is to it.

                              Wrong.

                              Consider a museum with two ticket gates, each manned by an attendant. Suppose the first attendant is perfect, and never lets anyone through without buying a ticket. Suppose the second attendant is imperfect, and sometimes lets people through who haven't bought a ticket.

                              Your position is that Well the first attendant isn't really perfect, as people are still getting into the museum without buying a ticket. This reasoning is clearly unsound. Only the first attendant is perfect, not the system as a whole.

                              This mistake even has a name: the fallacy of composition. [logicallyfallacious.com]

                              You already moved the goalposts by introducing constraints on the operation of the system.

                              It's not moving the goalposts, it's clear thinking. We were discussing systems of deterrence specifically.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by jmorris on Friday June 01 2018, @07:39PM

      by jmorris (4844) on Friday June 01 2018, @07:39PM (#687407)

      You really can't point to the modern U.S. death penalty and say anything about whether the death penalty is a deterrent. If you commit a crime there is really no way of knowing ahead of time if you will receive it, if you do there is no way to know if or when it will be carried out other than to say it will take a minimum of a decade from crime to punishment but it could just as easily take thirty years. Nobody who is likely to be deterred by the punishment is likely to still be in their prime crime years by the time a criminal is executed. All of this is explicitly by the design of the anti-death penalty forces. Read their writings.

      Now imagine a functioning criminal justice system where the penalties for crimes was crystal clear, capture highly likely and punishment known to be swift and certain. We do not need to run the experiment, only open a history book. It worked. It would work again because people haven't changed in a Century.

  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday June 01 2018, @10:41PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Friday June 01 2018, @10:41PM (#687490)

    How many subsequent murders are committed by a murderer doing a real life sentence?

    In the UK a "real life sentence" is very rare. There is always a psychiatrist who will sign on to let the perp go free after a few years as some sort of experiment. Further murders by the same perp are then not unusual. Only really high profile murderers get real life sentences because there would be such public outcry if they were released, such as the Kray twins, and the Brady/Hindley moors murderers.

    When the death sentence was abolished in the UK, it was by hoodwinking the public into thinking that murderers would never be released, but of course that would have cost more.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2018, @05:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2018, @05:03PM (#687740)

      IPP was scrapped in 2012 [theweek.co.uk] unfortunately.