> Deterrence doesn't affect crimes born from impulse

And yet I've seen way more people call an Uber instead of drive home drunk not because they thought they'd kill someone, but because they didn't want a DUI.

Sounds like the insight is that people have varying degrees of forethought. Crime isn't mono-causal and therefore solutions shouldn't be expected to be monolithic.

> solutions shouldn't be expected to be monolithic

I don’t see anyone in this thread arguing for this. Just backing up the notion that vehicular manslaughter is almost tolerated by the justice system.

Perhaps an unintentional use of the definite article?

> The function of prison sentences is deterrence.

The definite article is typically used to indicate 'there is only one'[1].

1. https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/free-resources/gramm...

To put it another way: crimes of pure impulse, with zero forethought, are a subset of all crimes.