According to the hedonistic calculus principle stated by Jeremy Bentham, what happens if punishment is not certain?

• A. Punishment severity is irrelevant to deterrence.
• B. Punishment should be avoided altogether.
• C. The punishment must be more severe to have a deterrent effect.
• D. Deterrence increases with lower severity.

Answer: (C)

Bentham’s hedonistic calculus shows that deterrence comes from the expected pain of punishment, which is the product of how severe the punishment is and how likely it is to occur. If the punishment isn’t certain, the probability is less than 1, so the expected pain is reduced. To keep crime deterred, the penalty must be made more severe to raise the expected pain to a level that outweighs the pleasure of committing the act. So, when punishment is not certain, increasing severity is needed to maintain a deterrent effect. The other ideas don’t fit because they ignore how the likelihood of punishment interacts with its severity to influence deterrence, or they contradict the principle that deterrence grows with higher expected punishment.