论终身监禁的刑罚威慑效力——基于美国“三振出局”制度之考察

The Deterrent Effect of Life Imprisonment without Parole:Based on the Empirical Study of “Three Strikes and You are out” Law

“终身监禁具有有效的威慑效力”这一论断自贝卡利亚时期就被广泛主张。在威慑的实现路径上,终身监禁具有其鲜明的特征,其以刑罚的绝望性作为威慑来源,以永久隔离代替特殊威慑的特点。因此,一方面因为其刑罚的严厉性,能对潜在犯罪人产生巨大的威慑效果;但是另一方面却使得各种本可以约束服刑罪犯行为的措施都归于无效。本文以美国的“三振出局法”作为制度蓝本研究后发现,终身监禁虽然没有在宏观上显著地导致犯罪率的下降,但是仍然对一些累犯的再次犯罪行为产生了显著影响。但是在具体的制度考察过程中,我们还需要结合我国司法实践的具体语境与终身监禁的制度成本,对这项制度的未来走向做出审慎权衡.

The assertion that life imprisonment without parole(LWOP)has an effective deterrent effect had been widely advocated since the Beccaria period.LWOP has its distinct features to achieve deterrent effect.For example,it uses the despair of permanent isolation penalty as the source of deterrence to replace the special deterrence.Therefore,on the one hand,because of the severity of its penalty,it can have a huge deterrent effect on potential criminals;on the other hand,however,it would make certain measures that could have rehabilitate prisoners ineffective.Based on the"Three Strikes and You are out"Law in the United States,this study finds that although LWOP has not led to a significant decrease in crime rate at macro level,it has a significant impact on the behaviors of some recidivists.However,to evaluate this penalty,we need to carefully consider the specific judicial practice in China and the potential cost of LWOP.