[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Your correspondent, Mr. J.
B. Atkins, rightly says that there is no one panacea for reducing the crime wave in the United States. There is, however, one important factor
which he does. not mention. Many American authorities, agree that uncertainty of punishment is one of the causes of the increase in serious crime there, and the death penalty,
by introducing sensationalism and misplaced sympathy, actually increases the danger of verdicts contrary to the facts.
Thus Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman, consulting statistician to the Prudential Assurance Co. of America and the compiler' of the exhaustive survey of the homicidal record in the United States appearing annually in the New York Spectator, says at the conclusion of his list article
"I have made an extended study of the death penalty and have come to the conclusion that it would better serve the cause of justice if it were done away with entirely."
Secretary.
National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, 23 Charing Cross, S.W. 1.
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