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Submitted by sparis145x on December 11, 2007
Category: Social Issues
Words: 1313 | Pages: 6
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Throughout history, statistics have confirmed that capital punishment has been an effective deterrent of major crime. Capital Punishment is the lawful infliction of death among criminals and has been used to punish a wide variety of offenses for many years all over the world. When the death penalty is enforced, it shows society that committing a capital crime has deadly consequences.
In early times, many methods of Capital Punishment were used to deter a
variety of crimes. Deterrence means to punish somebody as an example and to create fear in other people for the punishment. Death penalty is one of those extreme punishments that would create fear in the mind of any sane person. Ernest van den Haag, in his article "On Deterrence and the Death Penalty" mentions, "One abstains from dangerous acts because of vague, inchoate, habitual and, above all, preconscious fears" (193). Everybody fears death, even animals. Most criminals would think twice if they knew their own lives were at stake. Although there is no statistical evidence that death penalty deters crime, but we have to agree that most of us fear death. For over a century, the uniform method for executing persons in America was hanging, although starvation was very common also. There were exceptions which included spies, traitors, and deserters who would face a firing squad. Then in 1888, New York directed the construction of an "electric chair". It was believed that the new harnessed power of electricity would prove to be a more scientific and humane means of execution. The first electrocution took place in New York in 1890.
In the past, capital crimes were much different than they are now. Robbery and the selling of alcohol to underage customers was a serious capital crime. Rape was also a crime where the criminal was punishable by death. In America, only thirty-seven states authorize the death penalty. In most of those thirty-seven...
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