Deterrent Effect of Death Penalty: An - Annotated Bibliography Example

Download file to see previous pages This essay stresses that Shepherd studied data from American counties from 1977 to 1996 to determine if murder rates vary among states. He discovered that executions prevent murder in only six states, while capital punishment increases murder rates in thirteen states. The difference came from the number of executions. He noted that the more that the states executed criminals for violent crimes, the higher the deterrent effect. Shepherd offered two explanations: first, executions brutalize people, where killing becomes a way of getting vengeance on others, and so murder rates increase; second, increasing execution rates incite fear among the people, thereby reducing the incidence of murder.
This paper makes a conclusion that Zimmerman studied the relationship between the method of capital punishment and effect on murder rates. He used state-level data from 1978 to 2000. He discovered that electrocution has the highest deterrent effect compared to lethal injection, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad methods. He concluded that factors such as police employment, per capita incarceration population, and existence of capital punishment laws act together with executions in deterring murders. He indicated that lethal injection may not be creating the same deterrent effect that electrocution had. The author is credible because he is a lead economist in his workplace. The journal is also a reliable source, since it is a peer-reviewed journal and relies on economic studies to inform the conclusions of social scientists. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More