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We need crime prevention, not the death penalty Essay

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We Need Crime Prevention, Not the Death Penalty

For most crimes committed in the United States a fine,

sentence of time in jail or execution is the punishment. However, the

death penalty is the most questionable punishment. Is it morally

right? Is it effective in deterring crime, primarily murders? Weather

or not you agree if it is moral or not, one issue remains. The death

penalty is not an effective way to deter crime.

The death penalty has existed as long as humans have

existed. The quote "an eye for an eye" is found in the Bible. In the

middle ages fines, public humiliation and imprisonment were

appropriate punishments for all crimes, and death penalty for all

murders. Today, Federal law states …show more content…

There have been many comparisons of crime rates of death

penalty states to non- death penalty states. These clearly show that

the death penalty has no effect on the deteration of crime. The

homicide rates in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois rise and fall along with

Wisconsin. Michigan, Ohio and Illinois all have the death penalty.

Wisconsin does not. In 1994, the average murder rate in a death

penalty state of a population of 100,00 was 8.0, for a non-death

penalty state, 4.4. In Canada the homicide rate per 100,000 people

was 3.09 in 1975, this was when they had the death penalty. In 1976

Canada got rid of the death penalty. In 1986 the crime rate decreased

to 2.19 per 100,000 people, the lowest in 15 years. Isn't it odd that

the crime rates were high with the death penalty and low without?

Clearly this shows that the presence of the death penalty has no

effect on the increase or decrease of crime rates. Even with the

death penalty, crime rates continue to rise and fall in the United

States. The number of people on death row in 1967 were in 1972: 200

and in 1997 3,100. Crimes will be committed weather or not death

penalty is a method of punishment.

Many people believe that the death penalty isn't an

effective way to deter crime. "The proposed drug death penalty is not

only barbaric but also foolish: a temper tantrum masquerading as an

act of

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