Death Penalty Essay Tyra
The Death Penalty Deters Murder
The Ethics of Capital Punishment
, 2011
Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), "Death Penalty Deters Future Murders,” November 15, 2007. Copyright
© 2007 by Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF). www.cfif.org. Reproduced by permission. When discussing moral justification for capital punishment, one of the main issues is whether the death penalty actually deters criminals from committing murder. To answer that question, two professors from Pepperdine
University in California conducted a research study, and their results indicated the answer to be yes. In fact, their evidence correlated each execution with approximately seventyfour fewer murders the following year.
Therefore, statistical evidence shows that the death penalty does prevent future murders and is thus justified.
In the neverending debate between capital punishment proponents and abolitionist [people who want to end the death penalty], one ongoing point of contention centers upon whether the death penalty actually deters future murders in America.
Of course, one should note that even if capital punishment had no demonstrable deterrent effect upon crime or murder in America, several other justifications for its imposition would nevertheless remain.
Three philosophical and moral justifications for criminal punishment exist. The first justification, which is perhaps most ingrained in basic human nature, is what we commonly know as
"retribution." This elementary moral justification asserts that one who commits an illegal or immoral act should himself suffer for having committed that act. Or, in common parlance, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Although some people consider this a vulgar, unfortunate or improper justification for imposing criminal penalties upon other human beings, the simple fact is that it continues to constitute an important basis for criminal law and punishment. Agree or disagree, our society generally believes that
The Ethics of Capital Punishment
, 2011
Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), "Death Penalty Deters Future Murders,” November 15, 2007. Copyright
© 2007 by Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF). www.cfif.org. Reproduced by permission. When discussing moral justification for capital punishment, one of the main issues is whether the death penalty actually deters criminals from committing murder. To answer that question, two professors from Pepperdine
University in California conducted a research study, and their results indicated the answer to be yes. In fact, their evidence correlated each execution with approximately seventyfour fewer murders the following year.
Therefore, statistical evidence shows that the death penalty does prevent future murders and is thus justified.
In the neverending debate between capital punishment proponents and abolitionist [people who want to end the death penalty], one ongoing point of contention centers upon whether the death penalty actually deters future murders in America.
Of course, one should note that even if capital punishment had no demonstrable deterrent effect upon crime or murder in America, several other justifications for its imposition would nevertheless remain.
Three philosophical and moral justifications for criminal punishment exist. The first justification, which is perhaps most ingrained in basic human nature, is what we commonly know as
"retribution." This elementary moral justification asserts that one who commits an illegal or immoral act should himself suffer for having committed that act. Or, in common parlance, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Although some people consider this a vulgar, unfortunate or improper justification for imposing criminal penalties upon other human beings, the simple fact is that it continues to constitute an important basis for criminal law and punishment. Agree or disagree, our society generally believes that