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The death penalty is still retained in some countries, such as in some parts of the United States, one reason being due to the perception that it is a deterrent to certain offenses. In 1975, Ehrlich claimed the death penalty was effective as a general deterrent and that each execution led to seven or eight fewer homicides in society.
Death penalty opponents regard the death penalty as inhumane [207] and criticize it for its irreversibility. [208] They argue also that capital punishment lacks deterrent effect, [209] [210] [211] or has a brutalization effect, [212] [213] discriminates against minorities and the poor, and that it encourages a "culture of violence". [214]
In regard to capital punishment, deterrence is the notion that the death penalty (for crimes such as murder) may deter other individuals from engaging in crimes of a similar nature, while brutalization is the notion that the death penalty or executions has a brutalizing effect on society, increasing homicides.
The death penalty is sought in only a fraction of murder cases, and it is often doled out capriciously. The National Academy of Sciences concludes that its role as a deterrent is ambiguous.
According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies, 88% of these experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. [292] Data shows that the application of the death penalty is strongly influenced by racial bias. [292] In McCleskey v.
The Death Penalty: Opposing Viewpoints is a book in the Opposing Viewpoints series.It presents selections of contrasting viewpoints on the death penalty: first surveying centuries of debate on it; then questioning whether it is just; whether it is an effective deterrent; and whether it is applied fairly.
The death penalty serves two principal social purposes—retribution and deterrence. "In part, capital punishment is an expression of society's moral outrage at particularly offensive conduct". But this outrage must be expressed in an ordered fashion, for America is a society of laws.
Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty at his trial – scheduled for August. ... negates the retributive and deterrent aims of capital punishment, or creates a risk of an ...