Does capital punishment deter

Answer 1

It effectively deters those who receive it. They don't commit any crimes again.

We can never know if a deterrent worked. We cannot know how many crimes would have been committed without the deterrent. We must use common sense. The threat of severe punishment would surely deter some people. That is what many criminals have said. Even if capital punishment did not deter all murders, it might deter some. Given it would be cheap to implement (cheaper than prison sentences) and might work it seems like a good idea. People say it is barbaric. Sounds terrible. They never say why it is wrong. Can it be wrong to try to reduce murders? Should we worry about hanging a few murderers? What if we execute an innocent person? Firstly, if the deterrent works there will be less murders and so less chance of false convictions. Secondly, if we reduce the risk of being murdered by more than we create the risk of wrongful conviction we should win on balance. There are many murders each year; very few wrongful convictions.

AnswerThe threat of the death penalty is no deterrent...people are arrogant and they premeditate the act thinking they will be like OJ and get away with it because they are smarter than everyone else or they commit the crime in the heat of passion and punishment never even enters their mind until after...then the "I can beat this" attitude kicks in and they try to cover it up. These attitudes persist as do murder rates, the latter of which is not affected by the existence of capital punishment.

The death penalty should not be argued for from the standpoint of being a deterent, because it is not. Rather it should be argued that the punishment must fit the crime. Those who kill should be killed.

The unfortunate thing is that if you wish to mete out true justice doing so will eventually bankrupt your society. It is good that we want to take every precaution not to convict an innocent person, but a real shame that we have so many bad people that we cannot afford the required justice for all of them and therefore we end up with a bad compromise.

AnswerSpiritual decline is evidenced throughout the western world, with the rejection of the Christian faith and its replacement with secular evolutionary Humanism. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or chairman Mao committed the murder of millions Stalin likening it to being no different to mowing a lawn.

The prisons are not suddenly (or even slowly) emptying with the decline in spiritual values. The removal of the death penalty is a symptom of the rejection of absolutes as well as the downgrading of the value of human life and so it probably is not solely responsible for any increase in murder alone but is part of the wider picture. Nor would it necessarily prove anything if places which had a lower rate of murder also had the death penalty -there may be other factors, although I believe it does send a powerful message if administered correctly.

AnswerNo, States that have abolished the death penalty have shown a marked decrease in murder rates since putting such decisions into effect. Additionally, such states average significantly fewer murders per thousand than states with the death penalty. AnswerIt has never been proven that the death penalty reduces the murder rate. See Texas.

Yes it is a effective punishment as people are scared and will think twice before doing such major crimes again. And one criminal is less in the world.

It could be less effective than life inprisoment. Also, a person convicted to capital punishment may not be the real offendor.

Answer 2

== yes, not one person who has been executed ever committed anoher crime, proof that it works. == While it is true no executed person ever committed another crime, the death penalty does not act as a deterrent. The facts speak for themselves. Take the states of Texas and Florida for example. These two states execute more inmates than any other. It is common knowledge that both have the death penalty, even to those of us in other states. Yet, both also have two of the highest murder rate cities in the nation, Miami and Dallas. Hmmm. No deterrent there. So, does it prevent a convicted murderer from ever murdering again? Yes, once the sentence is carried out. Did it keep him from committing murder in the first place? Obviously not.

Answer 3

According to most law enforcement officers capital punishment does not serve to deter crime.

- - - - -

It depends on who you ask. The last person to answer clearly feels that it does not, and there is a great deal of evidence to support that claim. However, there is also some evidence to the contrary. For example, in 2003 professors at Emory University conducted a study that showed 18 murders are deterred by each execution. This number was on the higher end, but other studies have showed a lower deterrent effect as well. An economics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, Naci Mocan, conducted a study in 2003 and re-examined his findings in 2006. He found that there were 5 fewer homicides for each execution. These findings are discussed in the 2007 article in the Washington Post, Studies Say Death Penalty Deters Crime by Robert Tanner. As I said before, there is a lot of information that says the opposite as well. The Death Penalty: No Evidence for Deterrence by John J. Donohue and Justin Wolfers argue against statistical evidence that there is a deterrent effect. Specifically they discuss Isaac Ehrlich's American Economic Review which held that there are 8 fewer murders for each execution. There is more on the issue on Wikipedia under Capital Punishment Debate as well.

- - - - -

It has been proven that capital punishment does not work as a deterent to criminals.
As a deterant, not really. But it is effective, ensuring the criminal will never reoffend.

Answer 4

Whether or not it deters people from killing people is up for debate. However, capital punishment does act as a specific deterrent (that person will never kill someone again), something which must not be overlooked as even people convicted to life in prison kill other prisoners and prison guards.

Answer 5

In places where the death penalty is prevalent The US for example there is a huge murder rate. Third wold country's where death penalty's are handed out easily generally have even higher crime rates. Where corruptly aplyed death penalty's make up a large part of the murder rate.

Ben woz ere 2k9

Answer 6

Generally no. Some of the countries that have capital punishment also have higher rates of crime than comparable countries. Countries that abolished capital punishment decades ago sufferred no increase in relevant crime, and in some cases a decrease. Capital punishment could, however, be a useful deterrent in countries with unstable government and a history of coups, since it removed the hope of being released from prison by a different government in the future.

Answer 7

YES. "...Recent research shows that each execution carried out is correlated with about 74 fewer murders the following year... The study examined the relationship between the number of executions and the number of murders in the U.S. for the 26-year period from 1979 to 2004, using data from publicly available FBI sources... There seems to be an obvious negative correlation in that when executions increase, murders decrease, and when executions decrease, murders increase...

NO. Deterrence plays no part whatsoever. Persons contemplating murder do not sit around the kitchen table and say I won't commit this murder if I face the death penalty, but I will do it if the penalty is life without parole. I do not believe persons contemplating or committing murder plan to get caught or weigh the consequences. Statistics demonstrate that states without the death penalty have consistently lower murder rates than states with it, but frankly I think those statistics are immaterial and coincidental. Fear of the death penalty may cause a few to hesitate, but certainly not enough to keep it in force..."

Answer 8

The death penalty does not deter crime, statistics show. It appears it is used for revenge in general.

Answer 9

Death Penalty is deterrent to crime.