The Crime Prevention Research Center has often discussed the issue of marginal deterrence. When a mass public shooter has already murdered multiple people and facing multiple death penalties or life sentences, the additional penalty from a the person violating a gun-free zone is essentially no penalty at all. Taking five years from the murderers’ fifth or sixth life isn’t a penalty. By contrast, five years is a real penalty for an otherwise law-abiding citizen.
In this episode, a criminal in for four life sentences scoffs at FBI agents who warn him that there will be consequences if he doesn’t behave, and the criminal notes that there is nothing more that system can do to him because he already faces four life sentences. Earlier in the episode the criminal had murdered a prison guard.
FBI Marginal Deterrrence S8 E7 Dec 1 2025
