Hey Fengzi, Are you sure it was FEAR of capital punishment that made the streets of the city you were in safer? Were there other viables, for instance how much exposure to other violent stimuli did these people have, what was their economic and social problems?

I have walked the streets of Amsterdam, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal at 2 AM and I was not frightened in the least but I would NEVER walk the streets alone in NY, LA, Detroit <----OMG or how about Little Rock, Arkansas at night! or most any US city. I think I'd have to see research that proves these people were deterred by fear of capital punishment before I would beleive it there are too many civilized countries with no death penalty and extremely low murder rates. My gosh even Melbourne and Sydney are safe and they are HUGE cities why are they not free for alls for the evil people with no death sentence to worry about?