Capital Punishment as Deterrence to Homicide - Research Paper Example

"Getting Off Death Row: Commuted Sentences And The Deterrent Effect Of capital punishment.... However, regardless of the level of punishment that government subjects to individuals in the drug business, these efforts are futile.... Further, Becker (169) argues that despite states spending millions in protecting the law, punishment has little significance in ending crime among the people in the society.... Evidently, they prove that the higher the level of punishment for a particular crime, the higher the decrease in the crime rates among the people in the society (453)....

Ernest van den Haag, for his part believes that capital punishment likely serves as a deterrent factor to the commission of a crime because of the common fear of death.... Criminals, although not scientifically supported have a strong and palpable fear of the capital punishment on its severe form.... He further argues that the abolition of this capital punishment "is prayed upon by pro-life activists like Bedau with the argument that there is misdistribution between the guilty and the innocent....

Those that do not are generally preplanned and worked out so that the perpetrator does not expect to receive any punishment at all.... “After the Court ruled in 1972… some states changed capital punishments statutes to make the death penalty automatic when homicides were committed under specific conditions” (Mossman, 003, 22) Those who want the death penalty continued often make their arguments on the grounds of philosophical or psychological speculation stating, “The fact that a state can be just and apply the death penalty does not, of course, mean that the death penalty cannot be applied in error” (Sorell, 2002, 30)....

The same applies to those who have committed serious crimes that warrant death penalties or capital punishment such as murder, defilement, and treason.... In some countries and some states in the United States [such as Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia], the right to life may be legally forfeited if the person had indulged in, or committed a capital crime....