Avoiding of Capital Punishment Research Paper

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda® Made by Human No AI

Introduction

Capital punishment is used to execute criminals and suppress political dissent terms of murder, espionage, and treason. In the most historical records and practices, punishment was used as a way of enforcing justice. They used different ways to punish different extends of crime. They could stone person to death, boil to death, crucifixion, using a gun, burning, slow slicing, and neck lacing to death. Crimes which resulted into death penalty varied from one society to another.

In some, sexual crimes such as rape, adultery, incest, and sodomy qualified for a death penalty while others included religious crimes such as apostasy in Islamic nations, and human and drug trafficking. In military, it included offenses such as cowardice, insubordination, and mutiny (Banks, 2004).

Findings

Those against capital punishment are known as abolitionists. They believe that death penalty is not a legal system of punishing crimes. They otherwise argue that life imprisoned without parole can replace death penalty and is able to keep the society safe from criminals.

They say that there are greater chances of killing innocent people who were mistaken for the crime, discrimination in the legal system, and poor people who can’t access to quality legal help. They believe that killing at any chance either in war or defense is morally wrong (Braswell, 2011).

There is also a movement that supports capital punishment. They are known as retentionists. They support justice in terms of social utility. They believe that justice can only prevail when a criminal is punished in an equal way to the crime committed.

They say that if a person murders an entire family or terrorist blows up a building, it is only right to save the lives of innocent people than that of the murderer. If left alive he might as well kill again. Philosopher Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804) supports the law of retaliation where the punishment equalizes the offense (Braswell, 2011).

Discussion

In favor of capital punishment

Retribution; which supports that criminals or wrongdoers should be punished in a way that deserves the crime committed. Deterrence; argues that death penalty help prevent or reduce the cases of murder. Rehabilitation; gives chances to the criminals to repent and change without taking them back to the society but preparing them for the death penalty.

Prevention of re-offending; many people believe that a murderer should be killed at once to prevent him from killing again. Even though not in the society, he can kill those in prison too. Closure and vindication; some people think that death penalty will help relieve the family out of revenge.

Incentives for helping the police; instead of using death penalty, the police tend to reduce the incentives to life imprisonment to take advantage of doing further investigations. Japanese argument; they support capital punishment on the basis that bad things will be paid in bad ways (Pollock, 2009).

Against the capital punishment

Some people believe that human life is of great value and no one should be deprived of it despite the offence committed. Everyone has a right to live. It is better and more worth to keep a criminal for a life sentence to suffer enough to pay his crimes than to take away his life at once. There may be other causes of murder which are unpreventable such as those committed by insane people and emotional murders.

It is also not evident that death penalty is better in preventing or reducing murder cases than life imprisonment. The innocent will find themselves being prosecuted for things they did not do. Death penalty should be avoided to allow further investigations. The way the death penalty is carried out is not fair enough to the criminals. They sometimes wait for long before being executed. Crimes like adultery do not match the punishment of death penalty (Pollock, 2008).

Conclusion

Capital punishment is not good because it brutalizes society, laws and the state by increasing the number of murder rates causing uncertainty everywhere. This ruins the relationship between the state and its citizens. Capital punishment is also unnecessary since there are better ways of punishing criminals such as life imprisonment to keep the society in order and at peace.

It becomes very expensive especially when it comes to innocent people, unfair treatments, and discrimination to the accused. Most of the religious views are also against capital punishment.

Recommendations

Capital punishment should be avoided at all cost because it provides more harm than benefit. There is no crime that matches death penalty because the suffering of a long time provides the best punishment.

References

Banks, C. (2004). Criminal justice ethics: theory and practice. Bullhead City, AZ: SAGE.

Pollock, J. (2008). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Pollock, J. (2009). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Ney York, NY: Lightning Source

Braswell, M. (2011). Justice, crime, and ethics. New York, NY: Elsevier

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2018, October 10). Avoiding of Capital Punishment. https://ivypanda.com/essays/capital-punishment-5/

Work Cited

"Avoiding of Capital Punishment." IvyPanda, 10 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/capital-punishment-5/.

References

IvyPanda. (2018) 'Avoiding of Capital Punishment'. 10 October.

References

IvyPanda. 2018. "Avoiding of Capital Punishment." October 10, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/capital-punishment-5/.

1. IvyPanda. "Avoiding of Capital Punishment." October 10, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/capital-punishment-5/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Avoiding of Capital Punishment." October 10, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/capital-punishment-5/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
No AI was involved: only quilified experts contributed.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment
Privacy Settings

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

  • Basic site functions
  • Ensuring secure, safe transactions
  • Secure account login
  • Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
  • Remembering privacy and security settings
  • Analyzing site traffic and usage
  • Personalized search, content, and recommendations
  • Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Required Cookies & Technologies
Always active

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Site Customization

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

  • Remembering general and regional preferences
  • Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy.

Personalized Advertising

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

1 / 1