Why We Need Laws

The death penalty has been implemented since ancient times and punishes criminals. Some people wonder if it deters violent crime in the states it is legal, but does it have a noticeable effect on violent crimes in these places? Is it even moral, and should it be abolished altogether?

A law is a collection of rules set by authority to regulate a community. The first laws written was the Code of Hammurabi in ancient Babylon when King Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) ruled. In this time, Babylonia was considered ancient cultural area in central-southern Mesopotamia, which is now present-day Iraq. King Hammurabi, the sixth king in the Babylonian dynasty wanted to govern his empire and to make it a better place to live. There are 282 laws in the Code of Hammurabi.

The word law is defined as a system of principles and regulations of ethics and rules in order to keep people and also things in line, a set of rules of conduct. There are many functions of law in business and in society. Without the functions of laws many companies, etc. could and would not survive. Law is very valuable within businesses. Businesses have to have law because it is used as a protective shield for the companies. Without laws, companies could have lawsuits placed on them. So laws are put into place to help avoid as many lawsuits as possible. A majority of

Laws in general are thought up in order to maintain order in our society. Over time, it has

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.

Despite this on going argument, outlawing capital punishment in America could create many unhappy citizens, and cause a division in the U.S. government. By enforcing the death penalty prevention in crime could occur. If death is the punishment for murder then criminals are not gaining from their crimes, but receiving the punishment they have inflicted on others. The crime rate is lower in the states that do not invoke capital punishment, but as Walter Burns stated “the number of murders tend to rise with the crime rate in general - and not only in America,” (105). Capital punishment is maintained to hopefully show criminals that when they kill they will eventually meet the same fate. By enforcing the death penalty the government could be trying to scare criminals from their crimes, and in some cases it has worked. When the death penalty was restored in Kansas, for example, the homicide rate dropped considerably (Bedau 122). According to research done by Bedau the crime rate continued to sore between 1960-1969 when capital punishment was rarely being used in most states (Bedau 127).

The first set of laws that were recorded were from ancient Babylon by the King, at the time, Hammurabi (1795 - 1750 BCE). These laws were written because the laws became more complex and more abundant over time. Finally choosing to write them down, Hammurabi and his people had some unorthodox feelings towards those who disobeyed the law. The large differences between then and now prove that society has evolved and beliefs have changed drastically from what they once were.

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.

The death penalty does not deter criminals from committing crime. Most criminals who commit crimes do not have intentions of being caught and believe that they are invincible from the repercussions of their actions. Because of this, the death penalty really does not deter criminals from committing a crime. In fact, the death penalty could be considered an “easy way out” because the criminal does not have to spend several months, years, or even the rest of his or her life behind bars with little contact with the outside world. The criminal can just die and no longer have to suffer with knowing what he or she did, how it has affected others, and how it will continue to affect his or her life. Also, many criminals end up committing suicide in prison because they do not want to have to spend every day locked in a jail cell for extended periods of time.

My assumption is that the death penalty does not deter people from crime. I do not believe that the fear of receiving punishment or justice will deter murder. When people commit crimes, they do not think or care about the consequences at that time. If that were true, people would not speed on highways or do drugs in fear that they would be prosecuted. I believe that with or without capital punishment people will still commit crimes. I believe that the death penalty does not have conclusive evidence to be a tool in the criminal justice system to deter people.

Law can be defined as the written agreement that a society agrees upon this dictates appropriate and acceptable conduct and behaviour we display toward each other. Law is the foundation of the society it can only work if the society abides by it and work to maintain its existence, this will help solve any problems and crimes.

The deterrence argument states that, "although executing the murderer neither prevents the death of the victim nor restores their life, instating the death penalty effectively prevents the deaths of other victims" (Nathanson, 1987). On the surface, this seems like a convincing argument, because of course, if the murderer is dead, then he/she will not kill again. The question is, though, does the death penalty prevent the potential killer from ever killing in the first place? Is it more effective than other forms of punishment? Supporters of the death penalty argue that the death penalty ensures that the murderer will not strike again. But doesn't life in prison without parole do the same?

law is law that has been built up over the years by decisions of the

Capital punishment is also called death penalty. It involves government certified execution of a person as a punishment for a crime. A crime that results in punishment of death is called a criminal crime. Such a crime, also known as a capital offense, includes murder, crimes against humankind, and war crimes etc. Strictly speaking, capital punishment means beheading of a person who is found guilty of certain crimes that are punishable by death penalty. But, the question is does death kills the crime? If so then why isn’t capital punishment been able to curb the crimes altogether?

According to Reference.com (2007), law is defined as: “rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of conduct.” Essentially law is the rules and regulations that aid in governing conduct,