【经济学人】严厉的爱|2017.04.12|总第879期

THOUGH no one has been executed in Britain for over 50 years, until 1998 someone convicted of high treason or “piracy with violence” could in theory be put to death. The law is now clearly against capital punishment, but Britons are not. Fully one-third would like the death penalty to be brought back; the leader of the populist UK Independence Party has suggested a referendum on the matter. Yet research presented at this week’s Royal Economic Society conference suggests that if you really want to be tough on criminals, killing off capital punishment makes sense.

尽管英国已超过50年没有处死过一位犯人，但直到1998年有些犯有严重叛国罪的以及暴力海盗行为罪的罪犯理论上来说都可以被判处死刑。如今法律明言禁止死刑可英国人却不完全反对。整整三分之一的英国人支持恢复死刑；英国独立党民粹主义领袖建议就这个议题进行公投。然而公布在本周皇家经济学会议上的研究表明如果你真的想让罪犯获得严厉惩罚，废除死刑才是行之有效的方法。

• Piracy：n.海盗，海盗行为     

• Capital punishment：死刑

• Uk Independence Party：英国独立党   

•  Referendum：公民投票权    

• Royal Economic Society conference：皇家经济学会议

Anna Bindler and Randi Hjalmarsson, both of the University of Gothenburg, examined over 200,000 cases from the Old Bailey criminal court in London from 1715 to 1900. During this period capital punishment was abolished for many offences, from counterfeiting money (in 1832) to robbery (in 1837). Making the necessary statistical controls, the authors looked at the change in the likelihood of conviction for offences that were no longer capital.

来自哥德堡大学的Anna Bindler 和Randi Hjalmarsson查阅了伦敦中央刑事法庭（Old Bailey）自1715至1900年的超过二十万起案件。在这段时期，针对许多违法行为废除了死刑，包括制造假币（1832年）和抢劫（1837年）。（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）

The paper suggests that when capital punishment was an option, juries were often reluctant to convict at all. They may have felt it was a little rum to send someone to the gallows for stealing a cow, so they downgraded the charge or acquitted the defendant. The authors find that juries were particularly reluctant to convict women.

文章表明，当罪犯有可能判死罪时，陪审团通常根本不愿意做出定罪裁决。他们可能认为因为某人偷了一头牛就把他送上绞刑架有些荒诞，所以他们就降级指控或者宣判被告无罪。作者发现陪审团特别不愿意判决妇女有罪。

• gallows 绞刑架

Once death was off the table, however, jurors could convict with a clearer conscience. The paper finds that the abolition of capital punishment increased the chance of conviction for all crimes by around eight percentage points, with especially large effects for violent offences. The temporary halt of penal transportation during the American war of independence had a somewhat smaller effect on the likelihood to convict, suggesting that juries considered living in America to be a prospect slightly less awful than death.

一旦死刑被废除，陪审团定罪就能更加问心无愧。文章研究发现，死刑的废除使得所有犯罪的定罪率增加了8个百分点左右，其中暴力犯罪受到影响很大。在美国独立战争期间暂时停止流放死刑犯，这对定罪率影响较小，这也表示陪审团认为生活在美国比死亡好不了多少。

• Convict：v.证明有罪，定罪   

•  Penal transportation：流放死刑犯

• Prospect：n.前途，预期

Past research has found that would-be criminals are more put off by an increased likelihood of conviction than they are by more severe sentences. If so, then getting rid of the most brutal punishments could make criminal-justice systems work better. If the third of Britons who would like the death penalty reintroduced got their way, the country might inadvertently end up letting more criminals walk free.

过去的调查显示，那些潜在的罪犯相对于重刑判决而言，更容易因为定罪的几率高而不去犯罪。如果真是这样子的话，废除最残忍的刑罚手段可能会使刑事司法体系更加有效。如果那三分之一支持恢复死刑的英国人达到了他们的目的，这个国家可能会在不经意间使更多的罪犯逍遥法外。

• Brutal：adj.残忍的，野蛮的

• Criminal-justice systems：刑事司法体系   

• Reintroduce：v.再次提出

• Inadvertently：adv.非故意的

翻译 ▍Bibobibo，下罗小柜员，陌上

审核 ▍白夜叉

图文编辑 ▍太止

责任编辑丨毛毛