2. do you think the threat of punishment prevents people from committing crimes? why or why not?

I think it does. Some people are different than others but when the punishment is of the severity of the matter, it would guarantee they wont do anything bad again. Take criminals for instance, they murder someone intently and then are told they could be given the death penalty. Chances are the murderer, it being his first time and hopefully his last might feel some sort of remorse because of this, and instead will be given 25 to life in prison. Its obvious the criminal resents this and would rather die than spend most of his life in prison. But lets say he gets 25 years, does his time and is released. Surely by then, his ways will have changed as he might of had a horrible experience in prison that may or may not have scarred him into NEVER wanting to commit a crime again.

No!Because you can tell people you are going to lock them up, and they sill will commit a crime. No matter we try to threat a person, they will never stop committing a crime. We can lock a person up for 28 years, and when they get out they'll still go rob McDonald(Example). People don't listen and the more we try to do something about it, we never succeed on it. All we can do is let the person who is committing crimes get caught by the police, and get sent to jail or prison. We have no control over what the bad people do.
Hopes This Helps:)