Introduction
Over decades, criminal punishment has always been being meted by the judicial authorities on the criminal offenders. A criminal sentence in this context is understood as the imposition of an adverse or distasteful effect on a person or a group of people for the crimes committed. Fundamentally, the objective of criminal justice revolves around retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, restitution and primarily rehabilitation. In the same lane capital punishment encompasses punishment by death for committing severe crimes referred to as capital offenses. These offenses include; treason, murder, and genocide, espionage and aircraft hijacking. There is an ending debate of whether capital punishment deters criminal activities.
There is a perception that applying capital punishment has a positive impact in deterring crimes occurrences and other criminal activities. Deterrence in this context is focused on preventing any future crime by instilling fear to the criminal and the general public. It is a belief that once an individual is punished, theoretically, out of fear he will unlikely commit the offense again. In the same breath, there is a belief that the general public will also have that fear when they learn of the punishment meted on the offender (Bohm, 2016). The theory is that this information concerning the severity of the sentence will inspire fear towards committing any criminal offense.
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However, this is just an assumption that is yet justified. There is no clear evidence if this position is true. In reality, this is not an accurate perception. Considering the rate crimes happening in the whole world and especially America, it leaves a lot to be desired on if capital punishment has a deterrence effect on human beings intending to commit criminal offenses. Interestingly people still commit a crime with or without the existence of capital punishment. In this regard, people commit crimes from passion, or they do not think or care about the consequences. Criminal activities such as robbery, theft, burglary, housebreaking, and the ever occurring shoplifting have become the normal phenomena thereby risking human life and peaceful coexistence (Radelet & Phillips, 2018). In this regard, therefore, focus here will be on examining the effect of capital punishment regarding deterrence of crimes.
Literature Review
Capital punishment is an ancient phenomenon. In America, this punishment is as old as the 16th century. With the existence of controversies on whether capital punishments deter crimes, there will always unending debate about this debate. The debate is on whether it is moral and ethical to meet death sentence against a criminal offender (Bohm, 2016). The opposers of this position view capital offense or otherwise death sentence as equal to murder and that it is a violation of human and constitutional rights especially the Eighth Amendment of the constitution. Interestingly, the death penalty is still a complex issue today.
Today there are almost over 30 states in America that have legalized death penalty/capital punishment; Texas has been the first State in the US to empress this form of punishment. On whether this form of punishment deters criminal acts, it remains an answered question. Bohm (2016) posits that all interactions between capital punishment and crime deterrence are a complex subject. The author further posits that the there is no evident of decline in criminal acts as a result of meting capital punishment.
Interestingly, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in America, data from the Death Penalty Information Center 2016’s report indicate that the total number of people sentenced for execution totals to a paltry 1,442 heads. Among this number only 54 were women while the rest were women. In this lane, the center also reports that Florida, California, and Texas lead in the number of sentencing criminal offenders on capital punishment. Siegel & Worrall, 2018 in their article on the Essentials of criminal justice indicate that various actions have to be considered before sentencing a capital punishment. This factors penalty political ideologies, race, religious background, the socioeconomic aspects and type of crime itself. The existence of this situation and unending debates on capital punishment and its effect on crime deterrence results to the following unanswered questions.
Does the capital punishment deter criminal activities?
What are the effects of capital punishment on the crime rate within the criminal justice system?
What are the socioeconomic impacts and what should be an alternative form of punishment?
Hypothesis
H 0 : Capital punishment lowers and decreases the level of criminal offenses and the rate at which they occur.
H 0 : if a state extensive capital punishment is meted on offenders for capital offenses, there will less criminal activities as compared to states that do not have capital punishment in their criminal justice system.
Does the capital punishment deter criminal activities?
Does punishment deter crime? This is the major question that seems unanswered. In demystifying this theory, it is reasonable to note that this form of punishment has been in place since the 16th centuries. However, the rate of crimes has not significantly reduced. If it does it only does so in fluctuations; that is, it becomes stable rather than declining (Reckless, 2017). Indicator that. Comparatively, this is a clear indicator that capital punishment does not entirely deter crimes.
What are the effects of capital punishment on the crime rate within the criminal justice system?
In the same breath, the effectiveness of capital punishment cannot be measured; an argument that capital punishment is the most effective way of ensuring deterrence is always questionable. The constant debate on the effectiveness of the threat of death punishment imputes dents on the purpose of the punishment, deterrence. In the upshot of assessing the effects of capital punishment, it is notable that this form of punishment removes the offender from the society but conversely does not deter, remover or uproot the crime from the. The human aspect of engaging in crimes has several causes; it is not triggered by the [presence of having in place a harsh punishment but triggered by the socio-economic and cultural factors in the society (Cole et al. 2018). In some cases, the end justifies the means, and the capital punishment does not instill that fear in people.
What are the socioeconomic impacts and what should be an alternative form of punishment?
There are also arguments that capital punishment and sentencing an individual to death is cheaper than imprisoning. However, this position cannot be ascertained. Killing a person because they committed murder invokes the phenomena of ‘an eye for an eye.' The sentencing ranges from prosecution, execution, investigation, funding witnesses. This process is time-consuming and costly. In the same breath, the offender being sentenced to death as proportionally affects his family psychologically, emotionally and economically (Chalfin & McCrary, 2017). This scenario is possible, especially where the alleged offender was the sole breadwinner of the said family. Considering this, it is also indicative that capital punishment itself does not serve any economic importance in the society or criminal justice but rather negatively impacts the economy. Alternatively, there are more deterrence forms apart from capital punishment. This alternative punishment may include forfeiture, imprisonment, rehabilitation, restitution punishment form and other forms that have more effective deterrence impact.
Methodology
Regarding the crime rate in America and other neighboring states, the methodology that will be fundamentally applied will be descriptive in nature. Here, the study will aim at acquiring historical information, compare and contrast data, analyze and deduce reasonable conclusions about the capital punishment’s effectiveness and its impacts towards deterrence of crimes. Data will be collected from Death Penalty Information Center based in Washington DC, Disaster Center’s websites and avenues. This also included the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and the government’s crime reports from the various states such as Texas, California, and Florida. In the same breath, data will also be collected from the BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics). This organization is responsible collecting and storing data on individuals held under or sentenced to death punishment through the country. BJS also works closely with the Federal Bureau of prisons which is responsible for executing and enforcing executions. Reliance will be placed on this organization primarily because of the extensive data they have on criminality and punishment especially the capital punishment and sentencing.
Interestingly, data to be collected from the organizations above is well captured. It captures an updated history of capital offenses, data of offenders' racial origin, age, gender, origin, marital state, education, the offense committed and when the sentence was meted. In the same breath, this online data on webpage includes information on the execution trends, occurrences, the effect of the sentence and the trends of crime rate and re-occurrence. This information will help in demystifying the hypothesis of this research; especially on the whether the capital punishment effectively deters criminal activities.
To understand the trends in capital punishment, there is need to draw comparison will be drawn from two states; that is California and Texas. Texas will be the best choice because currently, it leads to sentencing criminal offenders to capital punishments. Further, another comparison will be drawn to another state that does not practice or issue capital punishment. In these circumstances, Michigan will fit in. The state of Michigan does not have statutes on capital offenses. After this comparisons and data collating, it is discoverable that states that have capital offenses in their penal code still have levels of crime rate as compared to states that do not issue capital punishment.
Constructed Survey Questions
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Doesn't the Death Penalty deter crime? Do murderers deserve to die? Is execution is acceptable? Is there alternative punishment? Death Penalty necessary? What is the economic impact of capital punishment? Are innocent people mistakenly executed? Can the capital punishment be eliminated? What will be the impact of abolishing capital punishment? Who may be sentenced to capital punishment? Should the worst criminals get sentenced to death? Is capital punishment cruel and unusual punishment? When was capital punishment introduced in your country for all crimes? How is the capital punishment process conducted? Is there a better punishment for capital offenses? Should the capital offenders be rehabilitated back in the community? Should there be an age limit in sentencing especially capital punishments? Which states have experienced capital punishment? Is there racial and gender discrimination in capital punishment? Should capital punishment be applied uniformly to other crimes? Should every state have statutes governing capital offenses? Which court should have the powers and jurisdiction to apply capital punishment? Should capital offenders be allowed to appeal? What is the rationale for introducing capital punishment? Should repeat offenders be meted with capital punishment? |
Conclusions
In conclusion, it is realizable that the major purpose of criminal punishment is the deterrence from further criminal activities and reforming the criminal himself. This being the case, it is arguable that capital punishment lacks this aspects or inclination. In the same breath, capital punishment as the sole punishment for capital offenses has been met with equal opposition, divergent views and controversies on exactly what is its effect, benefits and feasibility in the society and the criminal justice system. From this research, it is also discovered that capital punishment itself a crime against humanity. Killing a person in the name of capital punishment who killed another person is an actual continuation of a cycle of violence within the society.
Considering the imperfect human nature in some cases, the justice process may be flawed, and an innocent individual may end suffering the capital punishment. Statistics also have indicated that the United States itself is a country that allows capital punishment also has millions of offenders in prisons than any other country. This is an indicator that indeed capital punishment has failed to deter the occurrence of crimes. Viewing this purpose in the same lane, it is notable that capital punishment trivially serves the purposes of incapacitation and retribution. in this regard, therefore, capital punishment is not deterrence but may as well be dealt away with and other forms of harsh punishment be put in place and adopted.
References
Bohm, R. M. (2016). Deathquest: An introduction to the theory and practice of capital punishment in the United States . Taylor & Francis.
Chalfin, A., & McCrary, J. (2017). Criminal deterrence: A review of the literature. Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (1), 5-48.
Cole, G. F., Smith, C. E., & DeJong, C. (2018). The American system of criminal justice . Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Radelet, M. L., & Phillips, S. (2018). Capital Punishment/Death Penalty. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems, 2 , 433.
Reckless, W. C. (2017). The use of the death penalty: A factual statement. In Capital Punishment (pp. 38-62). Abingdon: Routledge.
Siegel, L. J., & Worrall, J. L. (2018). Essentials of criminal justice. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning .
