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I think that's not true, because it fails to consider the high time preference of the habitual criminal. So rather than deterring crime, that leads to anarcho-tyranny. Ordinary people are constantly on edge fearful they'll commit (or be falsely convicted of) some crime (like walking on the grass in that ST:TNG episode) and suffer a harsh punishment. Habitual criminals will just do what they want enjoying the lack of monitoring, and rarely will suffer the harsh punishment. It may be cheap but it's not effective.
How is that a time preference issue?
If a habitual criminal distinguishes between prob1(capture)*utility(punishment_1) = r and prob2(capture)*utility(punishment_2) = r, then they are irrational, since their expected utilities are the same in either case. By contrast, there is nothing intrinsically irrational about high time preference.
With more monitoring, a criminal will be caught sooner; the punishment is thus less far in the future and less discounted.
Ah, makes sense. I would definitely like to look more into this topic when I have time.
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