The Death Penalty is An Effective Weapon Against Crime

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Recommended: Controversy on death penalty

For years now the Americans have debated over the issue of capital punishment. Many people believe that it no longer serves out its intended purpose of deterring crime. Others believe that the death penalty is an inhumane act of violence and that it should be banished from the justice system all together. The thought of playing God also is another aspect of the situation. Despite these allegations however, the facts still remain. The death penalty deters crime, stops repeat offenders, and gives Americans a real sense that justice has been served, and should therefore remain legal and in practice.

Despite recent ridiculing of capital punishment, the sentence has popular and political support. A poll in a 1997 Time magazine stated that seventy-four percent of those surveyed were in favor of the death penalty (Schonebaum 6). Many of these supporters believe that capital punishment deters crime. Deterrence is the idea that the threat of punishment must be severe enough to counter the pleasures that the criminal would receive from committing the crime (Harries 11). Even if a person gathers that capital punishment does in fact deter crime, they are left pondering if the death penalty is a more effective deterrent than life imprisonment.

The easiest way to consider capital punishment as a more effective deterrent than life imprisonment would be to use common sense. "People fear death more than life in prison" (Schonebaum 8). Once a criminal is sentenced to death, they go through numerous appeals in order to try and reduce their sentence down to life imprisonment. This would lead a person to believe that they fear the death sentence more than the life sentence. Generally speaking, the thing that people...

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...ital Punishment: Give It a Chance." 16 October 1998. 3 March 2000 .

Gow, Haven Bradford. "Not Applying the Death Penalty is Cruel, Immoral, and Unjust." Human Events Vol. 52 Issue 45 (26 Nov. 1996): 22.

Haag, Ernest van den. "The Death Penalty May Save Innocent Lives." Schonebaum 53-55.

Harries, Keith, and Derral Cheatwood. The Geography of Execution. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 1997.

Miller, Amy. "Death Penalty: Right or Wrong?" Junior Scholastic Vol. 101 Issue 15 (22 Mar.1999): 6-8.

Schonebaum, Stephen E. "Introduction." Schonebaum 6-9.

Schonebaum, Stephen E., ed. Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime? San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press Inc., 1998.

Vila, Bryan, and Cynthia Morris, eds. Capital Punishment In The United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997.

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