EFFECTIVE CRIME CONTROL

Capital Punishment and the Fallacy of Death as Effective Crime Control



Capital Punishment and the Fallacy of Death as Effective Crime Control

Introduction

Capital punishment is the deprivation of life as a punishment, from a criminal and legal aspect. In modern, civilized society, the death penalty in many jurisdictions is illegal, and in other societies, it is a legitimate criminal penalty, which is only for extremely serious crimes. Capital punishment is one of the most ancient forms of punishment. Initially, it appeared during the implementation of the principle of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for a tooth". According to this principle, a just punishment for causing death to another person is the death penalty. In addition, the role played and existed in many societies the custom of blood revenge, which got designed to replace the death penalty, carried out on behalf of the state. There is much debate on the subject of the death penalty. For example, opponents of the death penalty have led to a miscarriage of justice that often leads to death an innocent man. Statistics also show that the imposition of the death penalty in the country does not reduce the number of serious crimes, but the death penalty solely satisfies society. The existence of capital punishment in the United States is one of the most controversial topics both nationally and internationally of the legal system of the United States. The system being responsible for their enforcement as well as their imposition in most cases the states because the federal government alone in matters of military justice, and has a few criminal matters under federal-law on criminal competencies. Since the end, of a moratorium in 1976, in the United States, 1277 people got executed. This paper critically evaluates capital punishment and the fallacy of death as an effective crime control tool. Moreover, the history, pros and cons, past and current situation of such punishments also discussed in this study.

Discussion

It is fair to say that capital punishment is under attack, particularly in the South where it is most commonly practiced. Not only have serious criticisms been raised by scholars in criminal justice, criminology and cognate disciplines, but newspapers have published scathing news reports suggesting that innocent people have got sentenced to death and even executed, and alleging racial discrimination in capital punishment practice.

The problem of effectiveness and necessity of the death penalty has a long history. For example, in ancient Greece deterrent effect of capital punishment questioned Diodotus, in the succeeding period the need to abandon the death penalty got justified. Opponents of capital punishment point to the fact that miscarriages of justice will inevitably lead to the executions of innocent people. It also provides statistics showing that the cancellation or the imposition of the death penalty in the country by themselves do not change the number of serious crimes. Penalty does not punish the offender, but merely satisfies a society that demands sacrifice. The immense bulk of self-governing states in Latin America and Europe have put an end ...