In their book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner disprove of the use of capital punishment, which has been credited for lowering crime rights, as an effective deterrent for crime by utilizing a relatable analogy, condescending diction, and appeal to ethos. The authors begin their explanation for their claim with an analogy that many readers would likely relate to in order to explain the difference between a deterrent and an empty threat. The analogy compares the government to a parent and criminals to a naughty child, to show that by saying “I’m going to count to ten and this time I’m really going to punish you” (Levitt and Dubner 123) is an empty threat, similar to the threats made by the government. This allows the reader to understand