Does the death penalty prevent future crime?
We are scared. Surveys find that the fear of crime is high and perhaps rising. So the question of prevention is important.
General deterrence is the idea that punishing an offender "deters" others from committing similar crimes. But does the threat of the death penalty actually discourage others from killing and thus make us safer? If so, does it do so significantly better than other forms of punishment?
Dozens of studies have examined the relationship between murder and the death penalty in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. They have compared murder rates in areas with the death penalty to those in areas without the death penalty. They examined what happened to murder rates when the death penalty was added or removed in various areas and countries.
None of these studies, however, has been able to establish that the death penalty results in lower murder rates or that the abolition of the death penalty increases murder rates.
If the death penalty deters, the deterrent effect is so small that even the most sophisticated attempts have been unable to measure it.
The vast preponderance of evidence suggests that the death penalty is no more effective than imprisonment in deterring others from committing violent crime.
Since Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976, substituting mandatory minimum prison sentences, the homicide rate has actually fallen by 27%. This pattern also has been observed in France and elsewhere.
Actually, the death penalty may have an effect that is the opposite of what is intended. After John Spenkelink was executed in Florida homicides seemed to rise, and observers have noted the same phenomenon in other circumstances.
Some r...
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Death Penalty Information Center
1320 18th St. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
phone: 202-293-6970 e-mail: dpic@essential.org
Internet: www.essential.org/dpic
Death Row Support Project
PO Box 600, Liberty Mills, IN 46946
phone: 219-982-7480 e-mail: Bgross@igc.org
Equal Justice USA
Quixote Center, PO Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782
phone: 301-699-0042 e-mail: Quixote@igc.apc.org
Internet: www.igc.apc.org/quixote/ej
Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation
PO Box 208, Atlantic, VA 23303
phone: 757-824-0948 e-mail: mvfrab@shore.intercom.net
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
4805 Mt. Hope Dr., Baltimore, MD 21215
phone: 800-622-2755
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
1436 U St. NW, Suite 104, Washington DC 20009
phone: 202-387-3890 e-mail: infor@ncadp.org or shawkins@ncadp.org
Internet: www.ncadp.org
deter crime? A study into the effect of Capital Punishment said, 'the presence of the death penalty in law and practice has no discernible effect as a deterrent to murder.' How does this serve as a deterrent to crime? It offers the convict an easy way out with no reflection on what they've done. They don't learn from their mistakes and although there is obviously no risk of re-offence, the criminal cannot give anything back to society.
According to Radelet & Borg (2000), deterrence was, in the past, the most frequently-cited reason for arguments in support of the death penalty. The claim stems from a belief that potential criminals will be less likely to commit severe acts of violence if they know that those who carried out similar crimes before them were put to death – in much the same way that heads on pikes at the gates of a city were intended to deter criminal activity in the Middle Ages. Recently, however, many studies have concluded that the death penalty offers no significant deterrent effects, and the few which claim to find support for these effects have received substantial criticism (Radelet & Borg, 2000). The majority of both criminologists and law enforcement officers surveyed expressed that they do not believe the death penalty offers any difference in the amount of violent crimes committed (Radelet & Borg, 2000).
One author has his own theory of deterrence. George Bryjak the author of “Why we should all watch Executions” believes that if the justice system televised executions to the public, this would deter individuals from committing crimes. Bryjak stresses his point saying:
“The question of whether the death penalty is a more effective deterrent than long-term imprisonment has been debated for decades or longer by scholars, policy makers, and the general public” (Radelet & Lacock, 2009).
The answer to the question of whether or not the death penalty deters crime is no, it does not. For one, the fear of possibly being sentenced to death isn’t nearly enough to stop a crime from happening. Philosophy professor and Holocaust survivor Agnes Heller, who appeared on the “Death Penalty” episode of “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” to argue against the death penalty, points out that there are different motives for those types of crimes where the convicted could be sentenced to death: there are crimes of passion, crimes for profit, and crimes for pleasure (such as a serial killer fulfilling their fantasy), and that in all of these circumstances, the desire to go forward with the crime is strong enough that they either don’t care about the consequ...
The people in support of the death penalty say that if murderers are sentenced to death, future committers will think about the consequences before they actually proceed with the crime. However, most murderers don’t expect or plan to be caught and weigh their fate. Because, murders are committed when the murderer is angry or passionate, or by drug abusers and people under the influence of drugs or alcohol ("Deterrence (In Opposition to the Death Penalty)”). Therefore, it will not deter future crimes and will actually increase the amount of murders because of society. As previously stated, the death penalty isn’t proven to prevent future murders and/or crimes because it actually increases the likelihood of committing murder. It doesn’t prevent future murders because it would upset the family and friends of the person who was executed. For example, if someone was executed by the death penalty and it was someones family member, then the person who lost their loved one by the execution would most likely commit murder in anger. If that person was executed the next family member would get angry and so on. The cycle would never end and would have more murders. There is no final proof that the death penalty is a better deterrent than other options. Not having the death penalty would be better because it could save many lives. For example, United States a country that uses the death penalty has a higher murder rate than Europe or Canada which are countries that do not use the death penalty. To get a little specific, the states in the United States that do not use the death penalty have a lower murder rate than the states that do.
Since 1976 there have been 1,434 executions in the United States, and additionally of those executions since 1973, 156 of those on death row were exonerated (Facts About the Death Penalty, 2016). In 2012 the National Research Council released a report titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, citing that studies claiming there was a correlation with the death penalty and lower homicide rates. However this is not true, the death penalty has no effect on crime especially homicide rates. Additionally it is negligent of policy makers to rely on such reasoning in determining the continued validity of the death penalty for a wide variety of capital crimes.
A popular belief among those who advocate Capital Punishment is that the Death Penalty deters future murderers. However, there is no statistical evidence that proves this is in fact effective. Furthermore, there is no evidence which states the death penalty is any more effective in deterring murder than life imprisonment. Deterrence is also at its most persuasive when it takes place soon after a crime. For example, a child learns not to put his or her hand on a hot stove top because it results in immediate pain and a burnt finger. Because the death penalty takes years to be put into effect deterrence is less effective.
On the other side of the debate, there are those that believe that the death penalty is a deterrent. For most criminals, they are aware of the fact that if they get caught, they will be sent to prison. However, other than being sent to prison, there are not really any other repercussions for committing a crime. They argue that if a person were to be presented with the possibility of the death penalty, they would more than likely think twice about their actions and realize that there are more risks than just im...
Second, the death penalty does in fact deter crime. New York, 1990, the murder rate was up to about 2,650 people, every year it has dropped, in 2009 there were only 778 murders.
“I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think that’s right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives.” -- President George Bush
In fact, murder rates are lower in non-death penalty states having the death penalty. According to the studies done by the National Research Council, the claim “the death penalty affects murder rates were fundamentally flawed because they did not consider the effects of noncapital punishments and used "incomplete or implausible models."
Deterrence means to punish somebody as an example and to create fear in other people for the punishment. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any sane person. Ernest van den Haag, in his article "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty" mentions, "One abstains from dangerous acts because of vague, inchoate, habitual and, above all, preconscious fears" (193). Everybody fears death, even animals. Most criminals would think twice if they knew their own lives were at stake. Although there is no statistical evidence that death penalty deters crime, but we have to agree that most of us fear death. Suppose there is no death penalty in a state and life imprisonment without parole is the maximum punishment. What is stopping a prisoner who is facing a life imprisonment without parole to commit another murder in the prison? According to Paul Van Slambrouck, " Assaults in prisons all over US, both against fellow inmates and against staff, have more than doubled in the past decade, according to statistics gathered by the Criminal Justice Institute in Middletown, Connecticut" (Christian Science Monitor, Internet).
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/02/us-usa-prisons-idUSTRE5215TW20090302 http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/methods.htm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8856277/Joanna-Yeates-family-statement-in-full.html. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/18/mexican-prisoners-jailbreak http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates. http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-and-innocence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bentley_case#Attempted_burglary_and_murder http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/international-law.
Statistics show that in areas where the death penalty is enforced there are fewer serious crimes being committed. According to Fein (2008), “As of two thousand and ten there are over seventeen thousand under sentence to be put to death...