Capital Punishment
Death Penalty Capital punishment has been and will likely always be a highly controversial issue. Throughout history, the death penalty has been used as a form of public display for crime deterrence. Examples in the past include beheadings, hangings, and now lethal injection. Modern research has been done around the issues of deterrence and whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. This begs the question of whether it is ethical to execute a person just to deter others from committing crimes such as murder.
“Researchers have come to many different conclusions regarding deterrence. Some have determined that the threat of capital punishment deters murderers and actually helps save a large number of lives. Other studies have concluded the opposite – that executions actually increase homicides and that the death penalty has no effect on murder rates whatsoever. Many believe that deterrence offers a utilitarian purpose.” (Moan) They believe that punishing others for criminal activity will prevent more future crimes from occurring. Governments hope that imposing the death penalty will deter future criminals from committing capital crimes because they want to avoid being executed. Although this has been a common goal throughout history, research is beginning to show that deterrence may not be as strong of a factor as many have thought in the past.
Those in favor of the death penalty argue that if more convicts who are found guilty of homicides were actually sentenced to death, this could in fact change the murder rates and lower them. The theory behind this is that if a 100 percent of future punishment for homicide is an execution, this will in then lower homicide rates by deterring future murders, whom, understands that if convicted of a homicide, they will be put to death no matter what. Some research studies on the relationship between capital punishment and homicide have led economists to agree with the death penalty
“Researchers have come to many different conclusions regarding deterrence. Some have determined that the threat of capital punishment deters murderers and actually helps save a large number of lives. Other studies have concluded the opposite – that executions actually increase homicides and that the death penalty has no effect on murder rates whatsoever. Many believe that deterrence offers a utilitarian purpose.” (Moan) They believe that punishing others for criminal activity will prevent more future crimes from occurring. Governments hope that imposing the death penalty will deter future criminals from committing capital crimes because they want to avoid being executed. Although this has been a common goal throughout history, research is beginning to show that deterrence may not be as strong of a factor as many have thought in the past.
Those in favor of the death penalty argue that if more convicts who are found guilty of homicides were actually sentenced to death, this could in fact change the murder rates and lower them. The theory behind this is that if a 100 percent of future punishment for homicide is an execution, this will in then lower homicide rates by deterring future murders, whom, understands that if convicted of a homicide, they will be put to death no matter what. Some research studies on the relationship between capital punishment and homicide have led economists to agree with the death penalty