It is almost generally thought that faster punishing of criminals is more effective. This thought is so well accepted that it is forgotten that it is just an assumption. Just an assumption because little empirical results to support it are available. In this thesis the assumed general and special preventive effects of faster punishing in criminal law are investigated. Herefor, among others, a field-experiment was conducted in Drenthe, in the Northern Netherlands, where in 1994 a speedy trial procedure was introduced. This summary focusses on the conclusions drawn from the empirical part of the study. If faster punishment has a general preventive effect crimerates would decline as a result of the introduction of speedy trial. Surveys were conducted to measure the generale preventive effects of faster punishment. A controlegroup — a comparable district in which the speed of punishment has not been changed — was used. It was found that the introduction of speedy trial had not changed crimerates: both the absolute and the percieved crimerate had remained the same. This draws to the conclusion that faster punishment does not have a general preventive effect. This conclusion can only be generalized beyond the scoop of this particular experiment when three conditions have been fullfilled. Firstly, the mean speed of punishment in all criminal cases must be higher. Secondly, the people must have noticed that the speed of punishment is higher. Thirdly, other factors than speed of punishment that could influence the general preventive effect may not have been changed during the experiment. The first and second criteria are fullfilled, but the second one is not: people have not noticed that the speed of punishment is higher since the introduction of speedy trial. Therefor theoretically the possibility cannot be excluded that a general preventive effect appears when people notice that the speed of punishment is higher. Practically however it will be very difficult to make people notice that criminals are being punished ...