If punishment were 10x the crime

Can you imagine if, rather than having the punishment fit the crime, we had the punishment be 10x the crime? Setting aside all arguments about being wrongfully accused or crime being caused by societal issues rather than bad people, but I’d imagine we might live in a safer world. Remember reading way back when people had their hands cut off when they were caught stealing? How many less thieves do you think we’d have if that was the case today? What if we castrated all rapists? How many guys do you think would still rape a woman if those were the consequences? If I punch the guy down the street just for the hell of it, maybe my punishment should be having 10 guys beat the crap out of me.

Remember that American kid way back when in Singapore who was punished with a cane beating just for vandalism? I just looked online and the crime rates for Singapore are pretty low. Do you know too many kids who would risk a caning just so that they could spray paint some crap on a wall? I’d imagine people in Singapore feel pretty safe walking down the street at night. Not that I live in a crime infested area or feel unsafe walking around alone late, but I think that I’d walk around feeling even safer knowing that potential criminals realize that if they do anything to me, their punishment will be that much harsher.

I’m not saying that we should waterboard every single one of our prison inmates until they repent, but I do think sometimes that punishments are so insignificant that they do not really discourage the person from doing the crime again. Its like freaking NBA athletes who get fined $1000 dollars for doing something wrong. Are you kidding me??? Kobe Bryant makes that much every time he blinks his eye. Do you really think that fine is going to deter him? Now, if you fine him 1 year’s salary, well, maybe then he’ll start to think that he did something wrong.

Our jails are overcrowded, which is proof enough that punishments are not stiff enough for crimes since people keep committing more of them even after released. Why would someone be scared of going back to jail, where they get fed and get a bed to sleep on, all on the taxpayer’s dollar. Yes, that’s really incentive for me not to steal from Bob. Not saying this is the solution, and I guarantee that it would never be accepted in our society since we consider ourselves morally above that. But, if you were a criminal, wouldn’t this at least make you think twice before committing a crime?