Criminologist: Increasing the current prison term for robbery will result in no significant effect in discouraging p...

Mehran on June 27, 2018

Hey there @smilde11, thanks for your post. Let's break down this question carefully. The question stem says, each of the following supports the argument in the stimulus EXCEPT. This means that the 4 incorrect answers do support the argument in the stimulus, and the 1 correct answer does NOT do so.

OK, so let's be clear about what the argument in the stimulus says: that increasing the current prison term for robbery will result in NO significant effect in discouraging people from committing robbery. Stated more generically, the argument here is that there is no deterrent effect from increased prison terms.

Answer choice (B) supports this general argument, because it tells us that when the prison term for embezzlement was increased, this did not have any effect on the rate at which the crime of embezzlement occurred. This supports the view that there is no deterrent effect from increased prison terms.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Sean on July 4, 2018

Thank you!