John Ashcroft Quotes

No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes.

I think one of the keys to any crime-prevention program that's got to be developed is to focus on punishment - to let people know that there is a sanction and a punishment for hurting others.

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

Punishment can do a lot for criminals, and send a message to the rest of society.

There's a simple way to solve the crime problem: obey the law; punish those who do not.

Criminals are punished, that others may be deterred.

The real answer to the problem of crime committed by persons on bail, and indeed the solution to the general problem of crime, lies not in preventive detention of individuals presumed innocent, but in the speedy trial of the accused and the swift and sure punishment of the guilty.

Severity of punishment is not the cure for crime. Certainty and promptness of punishment rather than severity are more effective. There was a time, as we all know, when in England considerably more than two hundred separate offenses were punishable by death. Nevertheless, that period was one of the most lawless and violent known to history. The utter failure of the drastic technique in the suppression of crime is universally acknowledged.

Every first year law student learns that sentencing has four goals: retribution, incapicitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation.

Nothing will deter crime but the certainty of punishment.

Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try - by punishing the troublesome - to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously.

We don't want crimes committed in New Mexico falling through the cracks. This legislation ensures that there is no area of our state where crimes can be committed without consequence.

For the past seven years we have been cracking down on crime in Missouri, passing tougher laws for drug crimes and sex offenses and requiring prisoners to serve more time.

One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.

How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.

I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison.

We must be vigilant in our actions towards criminals, and innovative in our approach towards solving crime.

We want a state of things in which crime will not pay.

I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…

To control violence [and other crime] requires a police system of professional investigations and good equipment. We don’t have it.

There is no system of regulation or law that can prevent crime, white collar or otherwise.

The purpose of punishment is fulfilled, crime is repressed by penalties of just, not tormenting, severity, its repetition is prevented, and hope is given for the reformation of the criminal.

Capital punishment may not be much of a deterrent against murder, but the sight of a few corpses swinging from a scaffold might work with drug dealers.

Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment.

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.