Ido believe the ultimate choice of committing a crime lies with the individual. people are motivated to commit crimes to satisfy their self-interests. for example, a person with severe economic constraints may decide to rob a wealthy person's house because it fulfills selfish monetary pursuits. now the severity of punishments generally discourages rational people from committing crimes. i would like to think punishments should be in proportion to the crime. for example, a mild punishment may not deter people from committing serious crimes. i think punishments that are immediately acted upon, offenders may be instantly aware of the pain, and discourage offenders from committing crimes. therefore, to make punishments effective, it would require swift execution soon after a crime was commited. what you understand from this paragraph?