Will Silk Road's Ulbricht Win Appeal?

[JJB]

There is not even a 0.0000001% chance that his sentence will be reduced. The FBI want to make an example out of him. They want to scare other possible future dark market admins using his example. Accept it. Ross Ullbricht will remain imprisoned for the rest of his life, unless he manages to escape from the prison.

Came here exactly to say this. From the view point of the government, his actions are nothing in comparison to the value of him being locked behind bars. It doesn't matter how little or how much Ross did, as long as Ross's imprisonment puts out a message to the public, he will remain behind bars.

Prison or the threat of it does little to deter criminals, just like the death penalty does nothing to deter murderers. Do you really think darknet drug kingpins are going to think twice or abandon their activities just because Ross got fucked for life? Doubt it. All it really tells them is they better step up their game and protect themselves better.

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[Blackbird0]

There is not even a 0.0000001% chance that his sentence will be reduced. The FBI want to make an example out of him. They want to scare other possible future dark market admins using his example. Accept it. Ross Ullbricht will remain imprisoned for the rest of his life, unless he manages to escape from the prison.

Came here exactly to say this. From the view point of the government, his actions are nothing in comparison to the value of him being locked behind bars. It doesn't matter how little or how much Ross did, as long as Ross's imprisonment puts out a message to the public, he will remain behind bars.

Prison or the threat of it does little to deter criminals, just like the death penalty does nothing to deter murderers. Do you really think darknet drug kingpins are going to think twice or abandon their activities just because Ross got fucked for life? Doubt it. All it really tells them is they better step up their game and protect themselves better.

Uh ... that's not true.

General and specific deterrence are very well studied in criminal law and sociology, and they do have an effect on behavior. Perhaps not as pronounced as some of its proponents would like, but it's there.

[JJB]

There is not even a 0.0000001% chance that his sentence will be reduced. The FBI want to make an example out of him. They want to scare other possible future dark market admins using his example. Accept it. Ross Ullbricht will remain imprisoned for the rest of his life, unless he manages to escape from the prison.

Came here exactly to say this. From the view point of the government, his actions are nothing in comparison to the value of him being locked behind bars. It doesn't matter how little or how much Ross did, as long as Ross's imprisonment puts out a message to the public, he will remain behind bars.

Prison or the threat of it does little to deter criminals, just like the death penalty does nothing to deter murderers. Do you really think darknet drug kingpins are going to think twice or abandon their activities just because Ross got fucked for life? Doubt it. All it really tells them is they better step up their game and protect themselves better.

Uh ... that's not true.

General and specific deterrence are very well studied in criminal law and sociology, and they do have an effect on behavior. Perhaps not as pronounced as some of its proponents would like, but it's there.

Umm... sources? In my country I think 50% of inmates who leave prison end back in there. Doesn't seem like much of a deterrent, then there's plenty of evidence to suggest death penalty does nothing at all:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty
http://nccadp.org/issues/deterrence/
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence

[Blackbird0]

Uh ... that's not true.

General and specific deterrence are very well studied in criminal law and sociology, and they do have an effect on behavior. Perhaps not as pronounced as some of its proponents would like, but it's there.

Umm... sources? In my country I think 50% of inmates who leave prison end back in there. Doesn't seem like much of a deterrent, then there's plenty of evidence to suggest death penalty does nothing at all:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty
http://nccadp.org/issues/deterrence/
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence

Well, all those cases are death penalty cases, which I think is a special type of case. But it's widely acknowledged that there's some general and specific deterrence applied to other types of crimes.

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Criminologists widely believe that the likelihood of punishment deters crime. We call this "general deterrence," when applied to everyone, and "specific deterrence" when applied to a specific person.

For instance, if Defendant A commits crime X, and is convicted and punished, deterrence theory would posit that Defendant A has had a degree of "specific deterrence" applied. Defendant A is less likely to commit crime X again, than if Defendant A had not been punished.

Generally deterrence functions thusly: because we punish crime X, people are less likely to commit X. Thus, the theory goes, if we punish the crime more harshly, or if we increase the likelihood that the punishment is meted out, the effect of the general deterrence is stronger.

A recent publicly available study of the effectiveness of deterrence (in regards to add-on gun laws) can be found at Abrams, David, Estimating the Deterrent Effect of Incarceration Using Sentencing Enhancements (January 2011). U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 11-13 .

[turvarya]

Uh ... that's not true.

General and specific deterrence are very well studied in criminal law and sociology, and they do have an effect on behavior. Perhaps not as pronounced as some of its proponents would like, but it's there.

Umm... sources? In my country I think 50% of inmates who leave prison end back in there. Doesn't seem like much of a deterrent, then there's plenty of evidence to suggest death penalty does nothing at all:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-about-deterrence-and-death-penalty
http://nccadp.org/issues/deterrence/
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/the-death-penalty-and-deterrence

Well, all those cases are death penalty cases, which I think is a special type of case. But it's widely acknowledged that there's some general and specific deterrence applied to other types of crimes.

***

Criminologists widely believe that the likelihood of punishment deters crime. We call this "general deterrence," when applied to everyone, and "specific deterrence" when applied to a specific person.

For instance, if Defendant A commits crime X, and is convicted and punished, deterrence theory would posit that Defendant A has had a degree of "specific deterrence" applied. Defendant A is less likely to commit crime X again, than if Defendant A had not been punished.

Generally deterrence functions thusly: because we punish crime X, people are less likely to commit X. Thus, the theory goes, if we punish the crime more harshly, or if we increase the likelihood that the punishment is meted out, the effect of the general deterrence is stronger.

A recent publicly available study of the effectiveness of deterrence (in regards to add-on gun laws) can be found at Abrams, David, Estimating the Deterrent Effect of Incarceration Using Sentencing Enhancements (January 2011). U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 11-13 .

It's a while since i really looked into this topic, but as far as I know, there are studies that show, that harsher punishment are not much use. so there is not much difference between going to prison for 10 years, for life or getting the death penalty.

[Argwai96]

Just yesterday i download it the Documentary Deep web and damn it was pretty cool, most of the information is actually out there but is nice to have people that don't know the complete history of the case and ross watch it.