Essay About Death Penalty And Crime Prevention

We Need Crime Prevention, Not The Death Penalty
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We Need Crime Prevention, Not the Death Penalty
For most crimes committed in the United States a fine,
sentence of time in jail or execution is the punishment. However, the
death penalty is the most questionable punishment. Is it morally
right? Is it effective in deterring crime, primarily murders? Weather
or not you agree if it is moral or not, one issue remains. The death
penalty is not an effective way to deter crime.
The death penalty has existed as long as humans have
existed. The quote “an eye for an eye” is found in the Bible. In the
middle ages fines, public humiliation and imprisonment were
appropriate punishments for all crimes, and death penalty for all
murders. Today, Federal law states that the death penalty is to be
enforced with convicted criminals for: treason; deserting armed
forces during wartime; murder committed by a soldier; kidnapping and
murder that involves crossing state lines; murder committed during an
airplane hijacking; and of course, homicide. The death penalty is
also called for punishment of for: attempting to kill anyone
investigating or prosecuting his or her activities; advising,
directing, authorizing or assisting in the murder of someone. Also,
The Anti-Drug abuse act of 1988 calls for the death penalty for all
drug related killings. Along with that, The bill amending sec. 848
to controlled substances act calls for the death penalty or life
imprisonment for certain drug offences possession of 10 or more kg of
heroin, cocaine, phencyclidine or analogue. Added to that, The drug
kingpin act sates the use of death penalty for convicted major drug
dealers caught with huge quantities of drugs, over 66 lbs. of heroin
and 330 lbs. of cocaine. Even though there are these federal laws
requiring the use of the death penalty for the crimes, State laws only
consider one crime, murder, to be a capital offense.
In the United States alone there have been 4047 executions
since 1930, and 188 were from 1977-1996. In 1996, there were a total
of 15,168,100 arrests; 33,050 for forcible rape; 1,506,200 involving
drug violations and 19,020 for murder and non-negligent manslaughter.
The death penalty was enforced 45 times. The death penalty is an
expensive punishment, since 1976 the united states have spent 700
million dollars in it. Methods of the death penalty include lethal
injection, gas chamber, electric chair, hanging and fire squad. In a
1986 poll 70% of Americans favored the death penalty as a punishment
for murder.
There have been many comparisons of crime rates of death
penalty states to non- death penalty states. These clearly show that
the death penalty has no effect on the deteration of crime. The
homicide rates in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois rise and fall along with
Wisconsin. Michigan, Ohio and Illinois all have the death penalty.
Wisconsin does not. In 1994, the average murder rate in a death
penalty state of a population of 100,00 was 8.0, for a non-death
penalty state, 4.4. In Canada the homicide rate per 100,000 people
was 3.09 in 1975, this was when they had the death penalty. In 1976
Canada got rid of the death penalty. In 1986 the crime rate decreased
to 2.19 per 100,000 people, the lowest in 15 years. Isnt it odd that
the crime rates were high with the death penalty and low without?
Clearly this shows that the presence of the death penalty has no
effect on the increase or decrease of crime rates. Even with the
death penalty, crime rates continue to rise and fall in the United
States. The number of people on death row in 1967 were in