Does Severe Penalty Work?

In our country,the number of criminal cases of trafficking in women and children and fund—raising fraud is high,and its scope of influence is constantly expanding.The criminal acts of infringement of personal rights have increasingly caused renewed national reconsideration.Whether or not the two types of criminal acts have been implemented has been The hot spots of discussion in various circles have also prompted us to re—examine the current Chinese criminal policy.The academic circles have two main views on the criminal containment effect of crime: one view is that the criminal code can effectively curb crime,mainly supported by the theory of criminal deterrence;another mainstream view is that the criminal code cannot effectively suppress crime.However,the above studies all take crime as a whole factor.They have not yet distinguished the sensitivity of different types of crimes to severe punishments.In other words,does the criminal code have the same containment effect for different types of crimes,There is currently a lack of theoretical and empirical research to respond to these questions.Based on the assumption of rational economic man,the behavior choice of criminals implies a comparison of “cost—benefit” in economics.This choice depends on both the expected cost of crime and the expected return.The cost of crime includes the cost of implementation,the cost of punishment and Opportunity costs,for the crime of obtaining economic returns,the proceeds of crime are mainly economic benefits.Defining the profit of crime as the difference between income and cost,then under the premise that the cost of crime is consistent,the elasticity of the profit of crime for the total cost of criminal punishment represents the containment effect of criminal policy on crime.This paper takes the crime of trafficking in women and children and the crime of fund—raising fraud in property crimes in personal crimes,and collects 1,710 judgments on the crime of trafficking in women and children and fund—raising fraud in the first—instance trial of 31 provinces in China from 2012 to 2015.The empirical analysis of the containment effect of criminal heavy code on two different types of specific criminal offences.This paper mainly draws the following two research findings:(1)The current criminal punishment of the crime of trafficking in women and children is better than the crime of fund—raising fraud;(2)the public’s attention to crime may be one of the conclusions Important mechanism.From the perspective of economic common sense,the above results are intuitive: the cost of crimes of trafficking in women and children is higher than the cost of fund—raising fraud,but the proceeds of crime are far less than the crime of fund—raising fraud.Therefore,in terms of the increased crime cost after the severe punishment The fund—raising fraud perpetrators have a higher ability to bear the cost of this part of the crime than the abducted women and children.At this time,the crime of trafficking in women and children will inevitably rethink the cost and benefits of crime.Coupled with the light criminalization of economic fraud in the current criminal law,and the voice of public opinion constantly responding to the heavy criminalization of trafficking in women and children,the degree of "irrationality" of trafficking crimes is further increased,and it will naturally be found that the criminal code is to contain The effectiveness of trafficking in women and children is higher than the result of fund—raising fraud.In addition,the public’s attention to criminal activities plays a certain role in regulating the above results.The result implies the thinking of the public behavior logic: the scope of potential victims of fund—raising fraud crimes compared with the crime of trafficking in women and children Smaller.The criminal object and the crime field determine the scope of the crime,which affects the public’s attention to different types of crime.Higher social attention can spread and spread the crime facts and crimes.Therefore,after exposure to different levels of public attention,the criminal deterrent effect of criminal sin on the crime of trafficking in women and children is greater than the crime of fund—raising fraud.This makes it easy to understand why the higher the degree of attention,the more obvious the effect of the criminal code on curbing crime.Since the crime of trafficking in women and children and the crime of fund—raising fraud are personal crimes and property crimes,respectively,at least not for all kinds of personal crimes and property crimes,the criminal code has the same effect,which should be taken into account when criminal policy is formulated.A factor.The above conclusions are of practical significance for reducing social crime rates,safeguarding people’s rights,maintaining social stability,and formulating appropriate criminal policies.