I've just lost a word I use frequently whenever talking about the reasons for punishments.
The word should (I think) fill the blank:
Punishments, such as jail time, __ people from doing crime.
The word is related to stopping, hindrance, incentive, restrict, etc.
In this usage, it should also imply that it stops people from committing crime because they don't want to go to jail. Jail also stops people from committing crimes because they can't leave jail. It should fit both of these simultaneously.
I hope this isn't too far of a stretch.
Best Answer
You seem to have mentally misplaced the word deter and the various words created from it using derivational morphology.
There are many synonyms of hinder and deter, but one normally thinks of deterrence as a (potential) factor in doling out criminal penalties.
Things like restrain, obstruct, impede, and dissuade aren’t at all so common for this purpose.