Rope. Public displays of swift justice had a chilling and lasting effect on people. A small impressionable child watching someone being escorted to the stockade or gallows for their crime would certainly be deterred in future years from breaking the law. The public displays of swift capital punishment is a powerful deterrent for the next generation. Incarceration is just a holiday and right of passage for most criminals today. Many improve their standard of living and need the structure of institutional living. This cost is a punishment to society instead of a benefit.