[jrockway]

I think the chance of getting caught factors into people's mental assessments of whether or not to commit crimes. If every criminal had a 100% chance of being caught and convicted, that would probably lower the crime rate. But if people think it's 99%, then they'll believe that they're the 1%, and it probably wouldn't change much. The US certainly doesn't provide the illusion of 100% of crimes solved, so that feeds into people's mental calculus. (Plus, I'm sure people think they could beat the charges even if they were caught. As long as there are juries and not Fact-o-Bot Model 9000 All-Knowing Oracles deciding the facts of the case, some of them are right!)

I think you could potentially observe a microcosm of this effect when comparing speed cameras to police officers with radar guns. People hate the speed camera tickets and fight vehemently to have the cameras removed. I've seen a lot of pictures of smashed speed cameras as well. Much less hate is directed at actual police cars pulling people over; maybe I'm reading the wrong forums, but I've literally never heard anyone say "we shouldn't have speeding tickets anymore". The chance of talking a human out of the consequences of your actions makes people feel comfy; a robot that issues you a fine whenever you speed is really scary, though, because you know you speed from time to time with a good reason.

(Sure, there can be other effects. You don't want a database of your location to exist. You had a good reason for speeding; there was a tornado chasing you and your partner went into labor and you were driving to the nearest hospital. And, the police officers will shoot you if you smash their car as a speeding enforcement protest. So maybe these confounding factors make my comparison irrelevant. I think it's interesting to think about, nonetheless.)