8.3. Deterrence 
DAVID CARTER 
Deterrence 
Forward-looking ideologies are designed to provide punishment, but also to reduce the level of 
reoffending (recidivism) through some type of change, while the backward-looking approach is solely 
for the punishment of the offender’s past actions. This change in how we view punishment is a large 
shift that has ripples in culture, the politic of the times, and even religion. Moving many eras forward 
from Hammurabi, deterrence is the next major punishment ideology. Rooted in the concepts of classical 
criminology, deterrence is designed to punish current behavior(s), but also ward off future behaviors through 
sanctions or threats of sanctions. Moreover, it can be focused on a group or on one individual. Thus, the 
basic concept of deterrence is “the reduction of offending (and future offending) through the sanction or 
threat of sanction.” 
When looking at punishment through this deterrent design, it can be split into two distinct categories: 
general and specific. Specific deterrence is geared towards trying to teach the individual offender a lesson. 
It is meant to better that individual so they will not recidivate. By punishing the offender (or threatening 
a sanction), it is assumed they will not commit a crime again. It is this point that makes deterrence a 
forward-looking theory of punishment. General deterrence runs along the same track as specific deterrence. 
However, general deterrence differs by when one person offends, the punishment received is going to be 
the same for all. In this way, the group doing the punishing attempts to relay the message of future events to 
the masses. If someone commits this act, they will be punished; this is part of the core design for deterrence. 
Some other principles of deterrence to discuss in brief are: marginal, absolute, and displacement.   Marginal 
deterrence works on the principle that the action itself is only reduced in amount by the offender, not 
removed. An example of this would be, a person sees a police officer sitting on the side of the freeway. If 
they are driving 70 mph, they might slow to 58 mph. Technically, they may still be breaking the law, yet 
their level of criminal behavior has been reduced. Absolute deterrence is a surrealistic concept often thought 
to be created by Robert Peel, in his idea of creating a police force to remove all crime. In today’s standards, 
we know this to be false. There is little to no evidence to support that all crime can be deterred within a 
specific area, or even in general. Displacement argues that crime is not deterred, but rather, it is shifted on 
three levels. It may be shifted by time, location, or the type of crime committed. Instead of someone stealing 
cars on the weekend, they may sell drugs during the day. Although the weekend crime carjacking rate will 
decrease, the daily drug trade will increase. 
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