Legal experts said New Yorkers created a strong deterrent to future corruption in government when they approved a constitutional amendment on Tuesday that allows pensions of convicted officials to be seized.

“Wow. Yes, indeed, it’s a deterrent,” said Robert Weisberg, a criminal law professor at Stanford University and co-director of its criminal justice center.

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Weisberg said that for a deterrent to be effective, the penalty needs to be a big, tangible fear for which the target “audience” must be sensitive, and “this is a very sensitive ‘audience.’ ”