Introduction
The lives of human beings are full of events that are not always lawful. Consequently, mankind has invented lots of ways to punish people for their unlawful actions, i. e. crimes. Murder and other serious crimes are punished in severe ways among which the death penalty is the ultimate one. For us, as students, it is necessary to get information about this phenomenon of criminal justice, and the Internet is one of the best sources for it nowadays.
The only issue is the reputation of sites and the accuracy of data they present. According to the above stated, the topic of the current paper is the comparison of two websites dedicated to the topic of the death penalty in respect of their reputability, accuracy, and objectivity. Thus, the present paper analyzed the Death Penalty Information Center and Amnesty International USA for these issues.
Death Penalty Information Center
The first site under analysis is the web page dedicated to the issues of capital punishment in the world. The site is called Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) and it provides the most updated information about the causes of death sentencing and carrying into effect, about the crimes that are punished by the death penalty, about legislative peculiarities of capital punishment, etc (DPIC, 2008).
The authority of the site is evident because it operates with data from scholarly books, journals, and articles that can be accessed directly at the site. The articles for the very site are written by reputable scholars or based on their ideas (DPIC, 2008). The information is received from governmental and non-governmental organizations that provide for the accuracy of the presented data and make the site free of any possible political or other biases and prejudice (DPIC, 2008).
Domestic Violence
The second site to be analyzed in this paper is the web page devoted to the same topic, i. e. death penalty and its appropriateness as a punishment for crime. The title of the site reflects its major objective – to inform people about the essence of the death penalty and show that this punishment is an absolute violation of human rights (Amnesty International USA, 2008). The main areas the site deals with are the reasons for the death penalty, means to fight it, active online campaigns against death penalty implementation in the United States attempts to prevent the death penalty from being executed in certain specific cases, like Troy Davis’ case in Georgia (Amnesty International USA, 2008).
The data presented on this website are either based on information from reputable governmental and non-governmental agencies and death penalty opponents. The disadvantage of the site is it’s being biased toward the idea that the death penalty is inhuman and its attempts to impose this point of view on the readers. Due to this, the authority of the site can be doubted, as well as the accuracy and objectivity of data it presents (Amnesty International USA, 2008).
Conclusions
To conclude the comparison of the two above considered websites, it is necessary to state that both sites are reputable online resources of information about the two of the major problems in the criminal justice field. Both web pages are based on scholarly information, statistical data, specific research findings, and the latest data about the area of criminal justice they deal with. The accuracy and objectivity of the information presented by one of the sites, i. e. Amnesty International USA, can be doubted because it is biased to only one of the points of view that exist in respect of the death penalty in society. Nevertheless, both sites are reliable sources of information for students and specialists and can be used for educational purposes.
References
DPIC. (2008). Death Penalty Information Center. Web.
Death Penalty. (2008). Action for Human Rights, Hope for Humanity. Web.