Capital punishment doesn't deter crime

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:Criminology

Document 1

This system has been plagued by multiple disparities. Capital punishment refers to the ultimate punishment of a crime which denotes the legal authorization of killing someone convicted of a crime (Allen, 2). This method dates back to historical times. Most nations are in favor of the practice with the notion that humans are afraid of death (Allen, 8). The main query here is whether the approach deters crime. In the United States, statistics by Pro-Death penalty showed that whether prisoner executions increased or decreased as observed in 1960 and 1964 crimes such as murder continually increased (Allen, 12). The report also showed that even after 6 years of no executions, the number of crimes committed totaled to over 20000 in 1975 (Donohue, 1). Most states in America implementing this punishment, have higher homicide rates than others which have not implemented the strategy (Radelet et al.

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Capital punishment is used on people who have committed extremely heinous crimes such as murder. These kinds of crimes have escalated by the day but only a few executions take place. A law professor from the University of Michigan stated that even though executions were recurrent and well-publicized, they did not exude any discernible change in crime rates. A 2009 survey by the American Criminology Society found out that over 80% of criminologists involved in the research did not believe that capital punishment deterred criminal activity (Fact Check, 1). According to the Harm Reduction International, finding methods of measuring the impact of capital punishment is one of the most significant challenges for researchers. Some nations have very strict laws against drug trafficking and if one is caught they are subject to a death sentence.

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