Other related topics at:
Authority/Government/State
202. Deterrence; Fornication;
Prostitution
He strongly censured the licensed stews at Rome. Boswell:
"So then, Sir, you would allow of no irregular intercourse
whatever between the sexes?" Johnson: "To be sure I
would not, Sir. I would punish it much more than is done, and so
restrain it. In all countries there has been fornication, as in
all countries there has been theft; but there may be more or
less of the one, as well as the other, in proportion to the force
of law. All men will naturally commit fornication, as all men
will naturally steal. And, Sir, it is very absurd to argue, as
has been often done, that prostitutes are necessary to prevent
the violent effects of appetite from violating the decent order
of life; nay, should be permitted, in order to preserve the
chastity of our wives and daughters. Depend upon it, Sir, severe
laws, steadily enforced, would be sufficient against those evils,
and would promote marriage."
Boswell: Life
Link
1,124. Capital Punishment; Crime;
Deterrence; Justice
"It has always been the practice, when any particular species of
robbery becomes prevalent and common, to endeavour its
suppression by capital denunciations. Thus, one generation of
malefactors is commonly cut off, and their successors are
frighted into new expedients; the art of thievery is augmented
with greater variety of fraud, and subtilized to higher degrees
of dexterity and more occult methods of conveyance. The law then
renews the pursuit in the heat of anger, and overtakes the
offender again with death. By this practice, capital inflictions
are multiplied, and crimes, very different in their degrees of
enormity, are equally subjected to the severest punishment that
man has the power of exercising upon man."
Johnson: Rambler #114 (April 20, 1751)
Link
1,125. Capital Punishment; Deterrence;
Justice; Moderation; Perspective
"To equal robbery with murder is to reduce murder to robbery, to
confound in common minds the gradations of iniquity, and incite
the commission of a greater crime to prevent the detection of a
less. If only murder were punished with death, very few robbers
would stain their hands in blood; but when by the last act of
cruelty no new danger is incurred and greater security may be
obtained, upon what principle shall we bid them forbear?"
Johnson: Rambler #114 (April 20, 1751)
Link
1,522. Deterrence; Lying
"I am, indeed, far from desiring to increase in this kingdom the
number of executions; yet I cannot but think, that they who
destroy the confidence of society, weaken the credit of
intelligence, and interrupt the security of life; harass the
delicate with shame, and perplex the timorous with alarms; might
very properly be awakened to a sense of their crimes, by
denunciations of a whipping-post or pillory: since many are so
insensible of right and wrong, that they have no standard of
action but the law; nor feel guilt, but as they dread
punishment."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
Link
