Is Capital Punishment an Effective Crime Control Policy Free Essay Example

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Abstract

In the article of “The deterrent effect of capital punishment: A review of the research evidence” capital punishment was determined that it does not deter crime. Out of one of the 74 research projects only 14 (23%) said that it was effective. 40 (66%) believed that it was effective in any way. And the remaining 11% was inconclusive or found contradictory results. Most of the data that was collected on a national level was not locally deterred. According to Zimring and Hawkins capital punishment should be a matter for political and moral choice rather than based on its efficacy as a deterrent against crime.

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Is capital punishment an effective control policy Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as a punishment for a crime. The European practices strongly influenced America’s use of the death penalty. When the Europeans migrated to the territory now known as the United States, the first known execution was in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. George Kendall was executed because he was thought to be a spy for Spain.

The death penalty laws varied from colony to colony with some executing minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians. In 1966 with mixed feelings; the death penalty reaches an all-time low with only 42% approval rating and leads to the abolishment of capital punishment. After several attempts at reviving capital punishment; in 1976, the case of Gregg vs Georgia (1976) causes the reinstatement of capital punishment. The ruling of this case was two against seven. Two ruling that it was cruel and unusual and seven believed it was not.

Later in life three of those judges changed their minds about the death penalty. If they would’ve voted differently during this case the death penalty wouldn’t have been reinstated. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 31 states currently participate and have executed a total of 1448 people, but a total of 17,277 since the beginning of America’s history. Out of the 31 states Texas has the highest number of executions with 542 to date and 4 currently on death row. Texas has at least 430 more executions than the second highest state for executions.

The date of reinstatement for Texas was January 1, 1974. By being the first to use lethal injection and the first execution in the state since 1962, Texas put Charles Brooks Jr. to death. The minimum age to be executed in Texas is 17 years old. With the total of 542 executions overall, they had seven in 2016 and four in 2017. There are multiple cases that were before, during, and after the reinstatement of execution. The Furman v. Georgia (1972) case determined that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment. Gregg v. Georgia (1976) case agreed to the death penalty by saying death for punishment in a crime of murder is not a violation to the 8th amendment. Mandatory death penalty laws were a violation to the 8th amendment which is unconstitutional. Those results came from the case of Woodson v. North Carolina (1976). Is capital punishment an effective control policy? Many of studies have asked this question and so far, they have come up with the same answer. No. Giving criminals capital punishment is not an effective control policy.

Former and present presidents of the country’s top academic criminological societies did a survey. The survey was, Does executions lower homicide rates? 88% believed that it did not lower homicide rates, 5% believed it did, and 7% didn’t have an opinion. If you were to look at the murder rate in the country you could compare it to the execution rate. In each region of the country there is a different rate of murders per 100,000 people. In the south, the rate is 6.7. Midwest has a murder rate of 5.3. The northeast has a murder rate of 4.2. And nationally the murder rate is 5.6. Then there’s different numbers of executions by regions. The South has 1180 executions. Midwest has 179 executions. In the west, they have 85 executions. And northeast has only 4 executions. Now when you look at the south, which has the most executions and highest murder rate, you can see that the amount of executions has not effect on the amount of murders happening in this region.

When you look at the states that participate in the death penalty and do not participate you could see that it has no effect on the murder rate. Every year since 1990, the murder rate in death penalty states has remained consistently higher than the non-death penalty states. In 1991, it was the highest murder rate for death penalty,9.94, and non-death penalty states, 9.27. But in 2005 the highest percentage difference was 46%. According to the article “DO EXECUTIONS LOWER HOMICIDE RATES? THE VIEWS OF LEADING CRIMINOLOGISTS” there are two studies that do believe that capital punishment is an effective control policy.

In the first study an Emory group used the data from 3,054 countries from 1996-1997. This group then concluded that the death sentences and executions led to lower homicide rate by 18 fewer murders. In the second study Joanna Shepherd gathered data from 1977-1999 to use monthly murders and executions to conclude that each death sentence led to 4.5 fewer murders and three fewer murders for each execution. Another economist says he has enough evidence to say execution has a deter effect. Paul Zimmerman later on argued that each execution deters 14 murders. His work now suggests that the effective deter from execution may not be used in today’s result. From 2004-2008 only four of the 251 inmates executed.