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Peoples opinion on capital punishment
Can the death penalty be effective
Capital punishment and its effects
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Capital punishment is very popular with the majority of Americans. Maybe, in part, because it feeds the inborn human need to feel revenge. The death penalty is also very popular politically and provides a way for politicians to show that they are fighting crime. Thirty-eight states have death penalty statutes and several other states are considering legislation to enact it. Yet, is capital punishment really effective and does it deter crime? I believe that it does not. Polls show that most Americans support the death penalty and see it as a deterrent to crime. In a 1991 Gallup poll, 76 percent of the sample surveyed favored the death penalty. However. the question was then posed that if new evidence showed that the death penalty didn't reduce crime would they still favor it. In that context, only 52 percent supported it. (Akers and Radelet 3). "These findings indicate, that the assumption of a deterrent effect is a major factor in public and political endorsement of the death penalty." (Ibid.) In contrast, criminologists and police officers do not view the death penalty as a deterrent to crime. In a poll of 386 police chiefs and county sheriffs, six choices were presented as ways to reduce crime. The officers chose the death penalty as the last way to reduce crime. (Ibid. 3) "...There is a wide consensus among America's top criminologists that scholarly research has demonstrated that the death penalty does, and can do little to reduce the rates of criminal violence." (Ibid. 9) The death penalty is good for political candidates because the public favors it. When George Pataki became governor of New York, he re-enacted the death penalty. This is what he had to say about it: "These new laws are working. Since I took o... ... middle of paper ... ...g crime and for this reason alone it should be abolished. Works Cited and Consulted Akers, Ronald, and Michael L. Radelet. "Deterrence and the Death Penalty: The Views of the Experts." Journal of Criminal Lawand Criminology. Fall 1996. 1-16. Online. Infotrac Searchbank. 31 Oct. 1997. Brownlee, Shannon, and Dan McGraw and Jason Vest. "The Place for Vengeance." U.S. News & World Report. 16 June 1997: 25-32. Freedman, Eric M. "The Case Against the Death Penalty." USA Today Magazine. Mar. 1997: 48-50. Online. Infotrac Searchbank. 31 Oct. 1997. Luciano, Phil. "Soul Searching Follows Sedate Send-Off." Journal Star. 23 Oct. 1997: B1-2 Pataki, George E. "Death Penalty is a Deterrent." USA Today Magazine. Mar. 1997: 52-54. Online. Infotrac Searchbank. 31 Oct. 1997. Worsnop, Richard. "Death Penalty Debate." CQ Researcher. 10 Mar. 1995: 194-213.
...eter, Richard C. “Death Penalty Information Center” A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts about the Death Penalty. 2007. 1-30 Print.
Journal of Healthcare Finance. (2008). A Framework for Cost Mnanagment and Decision Support Across Health Care Organizations of Varying Size and Scope. Journal of Healthcare Finance, 63-75.
Opponents of capital punishment are outspoken and vehement in their arguments. They believe the death penalty does not does not deter crime. They also hold the opinion that endin...
When a person begins this matter of addressing an issue they must always start somewhere. In this instance, it is best to start at defining the prison industrial itself. The prison indust...
or hundreds of years people have considered capital punishment a deterrence of crime. Seven hundred and five individuals have died since 1976, by means of capital punishment; twenty-two of these executions have already occurred this year (Death Penalty Information Center). Many U.S. citizens who strongly support the death penalty believe that capital punishment remains the best way to protect society from convicted killers. I, however, disagree; I do not feel that execution best punishes criminals for their acts. Instead, in my opinion, the administration of the death penalty should end because it does not deter crime; it risks the death of an innocent person, it costs millions of dollars, it inflicts unreasonable pain; and most importantly it violates moral principles.
Pataki, George E. “ Death Penalty is a Deterrent”. USA Today Magazine. USA Today, Mar 1997. Web. 26 Jul 2014.
Zito, M. (2003, December 8). Prison Privatization: Past and Present. International Foundation for Protection Officers. Retrieved from http://www.ifpo.org/articlebank/prison_privatization.html
The most widely used argument in support of capital punishment is that the consequence of execution influences criminal behavior more effectively than imprisonment does (Amnesty International). Although the argument may sound reasonable, in reality the death penalty fails as a deterrent. The punishment can only be a useful deterrent if it is rational and immediately used. Capital punishment cannot meet those conditions. The number of first degree murderers who are sentenced to death is small, and of this group an even smaller number of people are eventually executed. The possibility of increasing the number of convicted murderers sentenced to death and executed is declining because mandatory death sentences were declared unconstitutional in 1976 (NCADP). Murder and o...
When reviewing the international human right laws we see that it is put in place to protect the prisoner’s capabilities working in the private prison systems. With the advance degree of the rise in population of prisoners incarcerated every year, the more rapidly they are exploited in their labor capabilities. Where there are three different areas prisoners may work :) in the institution where the prisoner is incarcerated which is called a private prison, a private subdivision which is involved with the prison industries, and, private subdivisions that are engaged with the work release program. Over the years prison labor has been a matter of interest and concern with the (ILO) International Labor Organization, yet the international law is not advancing to the degree that it needs too on this specific subject. (Fenwick, C. 2005). In argument of this we need recognize how the prison labor is being used for profit beyond what it should and needs to be addressed if we have any regard to how we treat the incarcerated. Yes...
Radelet, Michael L., and Ronald L. Akers. "Deterrence And The Death Penalty: the Views Of The Experts[*]." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 87.1 (1996): 1. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
“The case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
Schonebaum, Stephen E., ed. Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime? San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1998.
In the year 2008 a study was administered by Professor Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock by the University of Colorado questioning if the death penalty acted as a deterrent to criminals. The study established that 80% of the world’s criminologist believe that the death penalty
Inmates are seen as miscreants and deviants and dysfunctional members of society resulting in apathy from the general public. Whether it be violating a person’s right to “life, liberty, and security of person” or the guarantee of no“torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” (Universal Declaration), both previously mentioned acts are unethical since they violate basic human rights. But despite the obvious issues, a large majority of the population continue to let it pass because they have low opinions of the incarcerated, resulting in little sympathy when allegations of abuse arise. So if people refuse to sympathise with prisoners, and authority figures claim that their treatment is an attempt at controlling the situation, then this begs the question: is this an ethical problem; if so, how does one attempt to correct years of abusive treatment? It can be clearly argued, with support from the philosophy of Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer, that prisoner abuse is an unethical act and attempts should be made to fix
Some argue that the death penalty does in fact have a positive influence on our society because it acts as deterrent that will scare citizens from committing crimes that could lead to the death penalty. That claim is absurd in many ways. Statistically (http://www.fdp.dk/uk/exec/index.htm) that is way off since the number of executions over the past few decades have dramatically gone up. As long as the death penalty has been around, the number of murders in o...