Persuasive Essay On Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics in today’s world. Many people believe that it is morally wrong to have capital punishment as a sentence to a crime. People also do believe that it is morally permissible for a severe crime. Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty. It can be given as a sentence when somebody is convicted of an extremely violent crime. The biggest issue that can be seen with this is that somebody could be innocent and sentenced with the death penalty because of the nature of the crime that they have been accused of even if they didn’t commit it. I believe that there is a moral line between using the death penalty and using other forms of punishment.

In “How the Death Penalty Saves Lives”, written and published by David B. Mulhausen on September 29, 2014, Mulhausen speaks of the reasons why the death penalty is a proper way to bring murderers to justice. He believes that “some crimes are so heinous and inherently wrong that they demand strict penalties” (Mulhausen). Not only does he believe that the death penalty is useful to set criminals to justice, but he also believes that the enforcement of the death penalty deters crime rates.

Historically, capital punishment has been used in almost every part of the world. Now, there are thirty six countries that have retained the death penalty in active use. That means that a lot of people, like Fein, agree that capital punishment is the right answer for the horrible crimes. Anything less than penalty of death will just trivialize the value of someone’s life. If someone’s did some horrible crime, like rape or murder, only way of stopping for something like that happens again is death for murderer or rapist. Yet, according to the N.C. Department of Justice, the the crime has declined in the years since executions stopped. Given this fact, there is no credible argument that the death penalty deters crime. It is hard to talk about this topic when you are not in position that you have someone that is murdered or raped. On the other hand, there are people that believe that no one is allowed to take someone’s life, no matter of any circumstances. Still, people like Fain have their arguments, and because of people like him we now have over 1300 executions that have occured in the U.S since

The idea of capital punishment deterring crime is difficult to determine; some could rationalize that the death penalty should in theory stop potential murders from committing crimes. However, this rationalization has never been concretely proven. The research into capital punishment’s effect on deterrence is immense; however, the majority of research on this issue has differential findings. Although some research suggests conclusively that capital punishment deters crime, others found that it fails to do this. Understanding deterrence, the death penalty, and the results of

Another issue related to the subject involves whether or not capital punishment actually deters criminals from committing crimes. Most people think that the death penalties primary function is to deter others in the future from committing similar crimes. There is evidence that at times capital punishment does deter. However, there are those or cite evidence or opinion that the capital punishment does not achieve its desired effect. The majority of this paper will focus on whether capital punishment actually deters crime.

The use of the death penalty has brought peace of mind to our citizens. Though through the mid nineteen sixties until the early nineteen eighties only about six death penalties actually took effect. When the number of executions dropped, the murder rate rose from 5.6 per 100,000 people to 10.2 which is almost double the murder rate. A society cannot live in fear but needs to live in reassurance and protection. As of nineteen ninety-nine, the murder rate dropped dramatically to 5.7 because the execution rate increased to 47 executions. Pearce, Matt. "Counterpoint: Defending The Death Penalty." Points Of View: Death Penalty (2014): 6. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. This demonstrates the deterrent effect capital punishment has on society. The result is deterrence shows if one kills then one will be punished for their actions and crime.

Those that are for the death penalty claim that it will serve as a deterrent and is the only way for retribution against murderers. Both issues are highly debatable and have even been a subject of criticism. Punishment as a deterrence has been used for ages. This concept does work, however it should not be applied to all criminals, in my opinion. Some pro capital punishment individuals claim that it is an efficient deterrence against criminals. In an article “Death penalty is a deterrence”, the authors claim that by practicing the death penalty, violent crimes will decrease.”violent crime has declined eleven percent, with murder showing the largest decline at even more than twenty two percent. We believe that this has occurred in part because of the strong signal that the death penalty sent to violent criminals and murders.” These statistics taken from this article may be inaccurate and should be closely examined.

A review was conducted from the Law and society Association, American society of criminology and the Criminal Justice sciences Academy and it revealed that a big majority concluded that capital punishment was not a deterrent to homicide. More than 80 percent of those interrogated believe that the survey doesn’t hold up the effect of deterrence for the death penalty. Other criminologists suggest that more homicides are caused due to the fact that there is death penalty. The outcome of brutalization argues that the rates of homicides will increase because of the example served by state executions.

Over the years, capital punishment has lost some of its popularity due to the cost, fear of executing the wrong individual, and people becoming more unsure if it is morally acceptable to punish someone to death. However, it is still a practiced punishment. Capital punishment is meant to serve as a deterrent towards those contemplating such crimes. Like Emile Durkheim stated, deviance is necessary for society to function; it allows society to adjust to the ever-changing guidelines- creating new ideals for right or wrong and adjust necessary consequences. No crime can be fully deterred from and no matter how severe of a punishment there is always the potential for there being no deterrent effect on someone. However, based off studies conducted, capital punishment does in fact serve as a deterrent towards committing crimes, as well as prevents murders from committing multiple murders if they are considered repeat offenders. The deterrent effect seemed to vary between studies conducted; however, capital punishment has a deterrent effect none the

Many would suggest that capital punishment is an effective deterrence when in reality it has

Professor Robert B. Ekelund of Auburn University and his colleagues analyzed the effect that executions have on single murder rates, while there was no effect on multiple murder rates”. In another study, Professor Robert B. Ekelund did find that “capital punishment does, in fact, save lives. Each additional execution appears to deter between three and 18 murders”. Professor Joanna M. Shepherd of Emory University found that each execution, on average, results in 18 fewer murders. By using state-level panel data from 1960 to 2000 they came up with three crucial findings. “First, each execution, on average, is associated with three fewer muders. The deterred murders include both crimes of passion and murders by inmates. Second, executions deter

The death penalty is one of the most controversed punishments in the United States. According to The Death Penalty Information Center, 88% of criminologist do not believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent. According to deterrence theory, criminals are no different from law abiding people. Individuals settle on their choices taking into account the net expenses and advantages of every option. There is a basis provided for analyzing how capital punishment should influence murder rates, according to the deterrence theory. Throughout the years, a few studies have shown a connection in the middle of executions and reductions in homicide rates.

A common way to determine whether the death penalty had a deterrent effect always on the basis of the number of murders deterred for each convicted criminal that was actually executed (Winter, 2008). The approach to verify the empirical verification was to replicate the results of the original studies and did battery of robustness tests. While the later study showed that these approach failed to confirm the death penalty affects the murder rate.

The test for deterrence is not whether executions produce lower murder rates, but that executions produce fewer murders than if the death penalty did not exist. For example, the fact that the state of Delaware executes more people per capita (1/87,500) than any other state and has a murder rate 16 times lower than Washington, D.C. (5/100,000 vs 78.5/100,000) is not proof, per se, that the death penalty deters murder in Delaware or that the lack of the death penalty escalates murders and violent crime in Washington, D.C., which has the highest violent crime and murder rates in the U.S. Be careful how you explain and understand deterrence.

Last but not least, from a sociologic perspective, capital punishment does not work as intended, to deter crime rate, rather, it might brutalize individuals, at the same time does nothing good to the victim’s family other than brutal vengeance. The origin of death penalty is served as a vehicle to put a warning for those potential future criminals that such kind of behavior will lead to death. However, so far, no clear evidence can be seen that capital punishment, as a mechanism of deterrent, actually cut down the local crime rate. Ironically, a reversal trend was found by Death Penalty Information Center (2010) in the USA that the death penalty leads to an increase in local murder rate. To die might be too easy for the mindless murderers. Also, for the relatives or friends of criminals put into death through capital punishment, they are more likely to be