Deterrence Essay

Deterrence

Punishment has always been used by the society as instrument to discourage any future wrong-doings. And for preventing murder, society must then use the strongest punishment available, that is, the death penalty. According to the analyses conducted by criminologists no conclusive results were found to verify the hypothesis that the death penalty prevented future murders till 1973 when Isaac Ehrlich used a new sort of analysis and found that for every execution, seven lives were spared because of others getting deterred from committing further murders. Even though it is often argued that some states or countries that do not employ capital punishment have lower murder rates than ones which do does not constitute the proof of failure

However, this is only an assumption. Statistical information hasn’t conclusively managed to show the actual deterrent effect of the death penalty. But even so, capital punishment makes sure that the person, who gets executed, at least, is deterred. This again, is a form of incapacitation, where logic puts forth that the executed person will be prevented from committing any further crimes, inflicting any further harm upon the society.

But the same argument can be made for life imprisonment as well. A sentence for life in prison too makes sure that the criminal won’t be free to commit any further crimes. Moreover, more states are inclined to give such sentences without parole which means such prisoners won’t ever be released. Still, there is a chance of such prisoners escaping; and such escapes are not unheard of.

It is further argued against the notion of capital punishment that most people do not think of the consequences of their actions before committing them. They fail to deliberately weigh the possibilities of an execution or life imprisonment. So even if the punishment of death penalty existed in a state, generally, the potential offenders do not take any of that into account before acting on their