Even the French admit that deterrence matters

This is pretty shocking:

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin ordered stiffer penalties for minors who take part in urban violence after a bus was torched in Marseille, leaving a woman suffering from extensive burns and in a coma.

"Faced with violence, the first response should be the detention of all those responsible followed by exemplary punishment,'' de Villepin said after a meeting in Paris today with transport authority chiefs, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Transport Minister Dominique Perben. . . . .

Thanks to John WIlliamson for sending this to me.