Economists advocate punishment to reduce crime by increasing its demand price. A higher penalty, then, should mean a smaller amount of crime demanded, and death penalty should eradicate the whole demand, i.e., all crimes. This book uses red light violation as an example to show why this theory fails. It fails because red light is a trap. When it's a trap, it aims to capture, not eliminate violations. The vicious cycle of more crime and higher penalty indicates that the trap is getting bigger and bigger; and that the theory fails repeatedly.

To conclude, people do not demand red light violations. Instead, they demand traffic, to supply bread. This is "Why Can't Death Penalty Stop Crime?" if transporting or selling bread can be called a crime.