Capital Punishment and Tortures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Capital Punishment and Tortures - Essay manakinTaking the deterrence argument graduation exercise, as the course module suggests, those who believe that deterrence justifies the execution of definite offenders bear the burden of proving that the closing penalization actually is a deterrent. Yet numerous studies have sh knowledge that the death penalty is no more(prenominal) a deterrent than life imprisonment, and indeed, those countries such as the United States who widely use the death penalty actually have the highest murder rates in the industrialized globe (Bowers and Pierce, 1980). The brutalizing effect of the death penalty, particularly through well-publicized, infamous executions may actually bring about more murders as there is a general atmosphere of acceptable violence within a nightspot (Zimring, 2003). There is thus no concrete proof that the death penalty actually deters violence, and indeed, the opposite may be true. As the module suggests, those states in th e US that do not employ the death penalty generally have lower murder rates than the states that do.Thi This argument against the deterrence effect is go on bolstered by the fact that many murders argon spur of the moment, emotional outbursts, often within a national situation, in which the consequences are not truly considered. These murders are committed by normally rational community while in a temporary state of irrationality in which judgment as to consequences is unrealizable (deathpenalty, 2007). It is these domestic murders that are most often solved. The professional type of murder such as that which exists within form crime or within the more haphazard gang killings are similarly undeterred because uttermost fewer of these cases are actually solved (Zimring, 2003). The other, much smaller category of murderers, serial and spree killers, are also unlikely to be undeterred. The first because capital punishment holds little fear for them because of their often objectifi ed thought of forgiving worth, including their own (Lahey, 2002). The spree killer will not be deterred because he normally takes his own life at the end of the spree anyway. Capital punishment holds no fears for a dead person. The befriend major argument for the death penalty si based upon the idea of justice and morality. This claims that it is honest to have a death penalty because it is a just punishment for the taking of another life. This surmisal is based upon the eye for an eye type of mentality. But as the module suggests, the concept of retribution is obviously another way of describing r even offge. In fact, a mature and civilized society , , , should respect all life, even that of a murderer. So the moral argument against the death penalty is based upon the same differentiate of ethics which makes murder the most serious crime within a society in the first place. The most valuable thing is a human life, according to this type of morality, and so all human life sho uld be preserved, whatever the person has done. This argument