[ktjknczb] Police catch criminals

Would the world be a better place if the police focused more on catching criminals after a crime is committed rather than trying to prevent crime?

It would end them horrible arrests of thoughtcrime and pre-crime ("conspiracy to commit") in the name of preventing terrorism that are going on these days.

It would increase freedom of speech and free exchange of ideas and increase our liberties.

It would not stop suicide bombers, for they are dead after the crime is committed. But suicide bombers are few and far between, and if they believe in a cause so strongly that they are willing to die for it, and they see the best way to further their cause in society is with a suicide bombing, then perhaps there is something wrong with society.

In general, it won't stop criminals who are willing to pay the punishment for their crime.

It will not stop random acts of violence, where the criminal commits the crime without considering the punishment. Formerly such a criminal may have been arrested for pre-crime. Included in this category are the "angry young men" which may make up the bulk of the "terrorist" (but they don't strongly believe in their cause) population -- But if society is producing so many of these types, then maybe we should take a closer look why.

It will not make the "surveillance state" (Big Brother is watching you) better; in fact, it will probably make it worse: increasing surveillance on those who would have been formerly arrested for thoughtcrime, and as a side effect, everyone else.

It will not stop the fact that if you look closely enough at anyone, you will probably find that they have committed some crime.

It will not stop the real loss in productivity caused by the threat of a crime, for example a death threat. But laws against causing fear are weird: even if you remove one fear, another one will take its place. Even if you suppress the death threat, you should still live in fear that someone is still plotting your death except not telling you about it.

The right way to do it is to selectively use this policy depending on how hard the crime is to get away with. These can be found by checking crime statistics.

But this will probably never happen because fear is so strong in politics.