THE EDITOR, Sir:

JAMAICA COULD capture and incarcerate murderers and, thus, very effectively preventing them from ever committing another crime. That redress is now available under law and does not seem to be working. Crime continues to rise. We are either not finding the murderers or we are producing new ones at an accelerated rate.

Death no deterrent

If, instead, we turn to killing murderers, it seems we will still need to fulfil the above. We must first catch them. We must also prevent the appearance of new murderers. So, murdering the few we catch is unlikely to make our streets any safer than if we lock them away.

Most violent criminals seem to have a rather short life expectancy. They are more likely to be killed by their peers than they are to be killed or caught by the police. So, how can the threat of death be a deterrent to people who live their lives in the shadows of death? If they were afraid of dying, they would most likely have chosen another trade.

I am, etc.,

DOREEN McGANN

doreenmcgann@aim.com

OrionvSgen 20

JSrfSlla, Stockholm

Sweden