[fairity]

> I see zero benefit to going through the final steps after they determined that their suspect had already died

If the victim has living friends & family, it provides closure. Additionally, solving cases, however old, boosts public confidence that crimes will not go unpunished, which in turn acts as a deterrent for future crime.

[kaminar]

Yep, it's egregiously irresponsible of them to do that. Like being smug happy about correcting sometimes grammar. F them.

[sebastien_b]

> Additionally, solving cases, however old, boosts public confidence that crimes will not go unpunished

But in this particular case, the family of the suspect was really the only one to get “punishment”, not the actual suspect (which now had no way of defense as others have pointed out).

[moron4hire]

The threat of punishment has never been shown to be a deterrent to crime.

EDIT: I would have thought this was a well-known issue by now, but for those who are disagreeing, "punishments do not deter crime" is also the opinion of the National Institute of Justice: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/five-things-about-deterr...

[krrrh]

I think you’re getting downvotes for the statement “never been shown”. It’s an overly broad claim, and even the link you posted talks more about the severity of punishment being a weaker deterrent than the certainty of being caught (and punished). There’s still no doubt that if theft was suddenly not punished at all then there would be more theft.

From other reading I’ve done the consistency of punishment is more important, and it’s better for criminal justice systems to provide a certain small punishment than an inconsistent outsized punishment, and this has a lot to do with the way humans evaluate risks, and improved paths towards helping criminals becoming non-criminals.

Anyway, I learned a bit from the link you posted, mostly that this sort of thinking is mainstream enough to be presented like this by the DoJ. So have my upvote.

[thatguy0900]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/san-franci... Seems to be a direct counter example. Punishments for shoplifting was effectively made nonexistent and then organized crime rings sprung up to begin shoplifting.

[syshum]

The problem with that is the government has no only removed prison as a punishment, but also removed all possible punishment as they have refused any accountability at all and disallows the use of force to defend property.

That is far far far different than what the OP is talking about

[ummonk]

The comment by the appropriately named “moron4hire” said the threat of punishment doesn’t work, not “prison isn’t the best form of punishment”.

[rightbyte]

Do more drivers turn right at red lights in the US than in say UK were it is illegal?

[moron4hire]

The legality of the action is not the only difference between those two locales. A right turn on red is significantly more dangerous in the UK than in the US.

[rightbyte]

Oh ... ye well lets pretend I wrote "turn left at red lights in UK" shall we?

[kortilla]

The very first statement in that link directly contradicts what you said. It says:

> The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.

The “certainty of being caught” is the threat of punishment. You’ve gotten it confused with the severity of punishment.

[moron4hire]

The line you quoted clearly makes a distinction between getting caught and being punished. Punishments are not the only possible response to someone having committed and being convicted of a crime. A heroin user could be put in prison or sent to a rehab program. One is a punishment, the other is not.

The action taken being against what the recipient wants to do with their time is not what defines a punishment. Punishments are correctional actions that rely on the power of violence deprive the recipient of something: money, freedom, comfort, life. Rehabilitation is a correctional action that relies on reason and education for the recipient.

[throwawayboise]

How do you punish a dead man?

[Someone]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumous_execution (with several historical examples, among which https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod: “the ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus, who had been dead for about seven months, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897. The trial was conducted by Pope Stephen VI, the successor to Formosus' successor, Pope Boniface VI. Stephen had Formosus' corpse exhumed and brought to the papal court for judgment”. I guess the judgment was “this case stinks”))

[BugsJustFindMe]

That's a performance which doesn't actually punish the dead person because the dead person is...well...dead.