>>88813146If you make stealing a capital offense regardless of the value of the goods, the situation in which they were stolen (eg stealing to prevent starvation), or any other mitigating factors, does the number of thefts go down?
If it does, does it go down in reality, or is it simply that reported thefts go down because victims are unwilling to see someone killed over petty larceny?
If it does go down, are the economic and social factors that accompany it - sudden upticks in demand for burial space/crematorium use/bodies lying in the streets; a loss of workforce (not everyone who steals is unemployed, perhaps they're underemployed or simply seeking a thrill) - worth the trouble of maintaining and defending the law?
If it doesn't go down, is the policy working at all?
If it doesn't go down and instead goes up, is that due to overreporting (made-up offenses as a form of score-settling, or as a pseudo-currency between rival factions) or to a factor beyond the ability to legislate for, such as the economy fucking collapsing because people are being killed all over and everyone is terrified?
Because any idiot can break out into "capital punishment works!" but very few people can explain how. I mean, we have states in the world today where capital punishment is the law for offenses far more trivial than murder (which is apparently where you draw the line, but by no means the only crime the Joker ever committed) but it doesn't seem to deter criminals, or else it would be an unused statute, where nobody was ever dumb enough to deliberately commit a crime that it would apply to.
Heck, if we're talking about the Joker in specific terms, the US has a federal system that should have dealt with him long ago, handing down the death penalty. Sanity or lack of it isn't really at issue; he's sane enough to commit to long-term plans, this "play insanity" of his isn't going to cut it in a courtroom.
Doesn't seem to have deterred him, or any other supercriminals in DC.
