Research suggests that certainty of punishment has more effect on criminal behavior than severity.

"The only thing that deters crime is the certainty of punishment.

The swiftness, severity, and certainty of punishment are the key elements in understanding a law's ability to control human behavior.

The certainty of punishment is Japan's major deterrent.

But they are just as essential, and in some ways more essential, because it's far better to have the certainty of punishment than severity.

If certainty of punishment is to be achieved, there must be a major investment in policing.

And this begins with clear standards and the certainty of punishment under the laws of every country.

The certainty of punishment made him stick.

We have very little of it on Doldra for two reasons: the certainty of punishment, and its horror.

It is this certainty of punishment that can help to prevent similar actions in the future and pave the way for reconciliation following violent clashes.

Those familiar with the criminal justice system know that the surest deterrents to crime are the probability of conviction and the certainty of punishment.

Parker was quoted as saying, "It's not the severity of punishment but rather the certainty of punishment that deters crime."

Khajimba also promised to continue to fight corruption by providing decent wages and the certainty of punishment in the event of corruption.

The proposed reforms would promote truth-in-sentencing and certainty of punishment by bringing a healthy dose of sunlight to the murky, misunderstood world of sentencing.

However, the evidence suggests that increasing the severity of a punishment does not have much deterrent effect on crime, while increasing the certainty of punishment does.

Quoting Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney, as saying that certainty of punishment would be the best deterrent, Mr. Goldin proposed mandatory drug testing for criminal defendants.

You want to be able to get to the problem of criminal behavior in terms of deterring it with the certainty of punishment, with stepping up the ability to prosecute, with refusing to plea-bargain certain offenses."

Whether certainty of punishment, a deterrent that Mr. Goetz believed was missing when he was a victim of crime, now should be applied to him as a convicted violator of the gun law is for Justice Stephen G. Crane to weigh.

Or, as the state's highest-ranking judge, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler of the Court of Appeals, put it last week: "What is being lost is the certainty of punishment, which is even more important as a deterrent to crime than the severity."

"These guideliness will create certainty of punishment, and that translates into deterrence,"said Judge William W. Wilkins Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the commission's chairman, in annoucing the proposals at a news conference.