Suppose (as seems likely to me) that in the near future it becomes much easier to detect when people are driving above the speed limit. In fact it may become virtually 100% certain that a speeding driver will be detected and fined.
What is your instinctive feeling about how this should affect speeding fines? I can imagine a couple of different responses. One is that the fine is a punishment for the risk you imposed on others by your reckless actions, and it should not change. The other is that with 100% detection, the State has become too powerful, and penalizing people as harshly as we do today would be like living in a police state. In fact I imagine there might be opposition to universal enforcement of speeding regulations on these grounds.
I have some sympathy for both views, but for me the second one predominates. And it is somewhat consistent with efficient deterrence. That is not my explicit motivation for favoring this view, but the effect is much the same. Fear of excessive enforcement by an all-powerful State motivates me to hope that in such circumstances, the penalties for crimes will be reduced, in order to leave some room for human weakness, as much a part of our culture as strength. Hence at least some of our instincts are in fact in rough accordance with optimal deterrence theory.
Suppose (as seems likely to me) that in the near future it becomes much easier to detect when people are driving above the speed limit. In fact it may become virtually 100% certain that a speeding driver will be detected and fined.
What is your instinctive feeling about how this should affect speeding fines? I can imagine a couple of different responses. One is that the fine is a punishment for the risk you imposed on others by your reckless actions, and it should not change. The other is that with 100% detection, the State has become too powerful, and penalizing people as harshly as we do today would be like living in a police state. In fact I imagine there might be opposition to universal enforcement of speeding regulations on these grounds.
I have some sympathy for both views, but for me the second one predominates. And it is somewhat consistent with efficient deterrence. That is not my explicit motivation for favoring this view, but the effect is much the same. Fear of excessive enforcement by an all-powerful State motivates me to hope that in such circumstances, the penalties for crimes will be reduced, in order to leave some room for human weakness, as much a part of our culture as strength. Hence at least some of our instincts are in fact in rough accordance with optimal deterrence theory.