In Chapter 8, I enjoyed the Deterrence Theory because I believe everyone goes through it. For example, the other night, I asked my friends if they have ever seen or heard about a fight happening in college and they told me that they had a friend who fought at a community college just because someone was bothering them. In the end, the friend got expelled for starting the fight. From this incident, the friend made a rational decision without calculating their potential costs and benefits. Its interesting because from this story, it contradicts the deterrence theory in the book, that "if the costs exceed the benefits, the theory predicts that we'll decide it's not worth the risk (van den Haag, 1975)." However, as the individual grows older, they mature and learn from their mistakes to not make the same mistakes for future.
In addition, when thinking about the deterrence theory, I think back to theft and why people steal. To rob anyone or anything in general can be very risky, yet if the offender/robber gets away with it then it would be a win situation, which in return they may do it more knowing that they won't get caught for it so they would risk their chances to steal again. For example, this year at Hamline University, robbery around campus have increased. Although I am unsure if it was caused by the same person, from what I heard, none were caught so far so from their perspective they believe they would benefit from stealing without getting caught. The link below gives some stories relating to theft and how it was resolved.
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/144168415.html
After reading a few stories, you start to see a pattern that when there are no arrests in return that theft would normally increase.
The example you gave about robbery was really great. You're right, it is usually the same people doing this. That's exactly what I thought when those incidents on campus occurred!
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