The Death Penalty Deters Crime Internationally?
-58% of police officers say that
they morally support the death penalty but do not believe that it deters
crime
-Recent crime figures from several
abolitionist countries seem to show that the death penalty does not deter
crime, in fact abolition brings down crime. In Canada, the homicide
rate per 100,000 population fell from a peak of 3.09 in 1975, the year
before the abolition of the death penalty for murder, to 2.41 in 1980,
and since then it has declined further. In 1999, 23 years after abolition,
the homicide rate was 1.76 per 100,000 population 43 percent lower than
in 1975. The total number of homicides reported in the country fell
in 1999 for the third straight year.
Amnesty
International Web site
Policy
Almanac
-These are statistics from the United States
-
Interpol
International Statistics
-These statistics for the United
States support the opposite conclusion of the one that can be reached from
Canada's crime statistics. Canada's statistics support the conclusion
that the death penalty does not deter crime in any shape, way, or form,
but actually reduces crime to abolish it.
-The United States statistics support the idea that the death penalty is a great way to deter crime. The statistics show that as the number of prisoners on death row increase, the number of violent crimes decrease. Maybe this means that the death penalty actually deters crime.
-However this next graph shows that
the United States has the highest rate of homicide of all industrialized
countries, which seems to show the opposite.
-The following is an opinion taken
off the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's web site:
Deterence...Fact Or Fiction?
The death penalty is not a deterrent.
Governments that have enacted the death penalty continue to have higher
civilian murder rates than those that do not. The five countries with the
highest homicide rates that do not impose the death penalty average
21.6 murders per every 100,000 people, whereas the five countries
with the highest homicide rate that do impose the death penalty average
41.6 murders every 100,000 people. The average murder rate per 100,000
people in U.S. states with capital punishment is about 8, while it is only
4.4 in abolitionist states. Law enforcement officials agree that
the death penalty is not an effective crime fighting tool. Sixty
seven (67) percent of all law enforcement officers do not feel capital
punishment decreases the rate of homicides. Only 3% of police officers
see the imposition of the death penalty as one of the most useful weapons
in their fight against crime. 82% of the nations law enforcement
officials believe that criminals do not think about possible punishments
when they commit a crime.
NCADP
web site
-"That the death penalty, for murder
in the commission of armed robbery, each year saves the lives of scores,
if not hundreds of victims of such crimes cannot reasonably be doubted
by any judge who has had substantial experience at the trial court level
with the handling of such persons."
-- The Honorable B.
Rey Shauer, Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Pro Death
Penalty Page
-Statistics from Saudi Arabia show
that as the number of people executed goes up, so does the crime rate.
These statistics offer three different variations of a conclusion that
could be reached.
Amnesty
International
CONCLUSION: With the
statistics from these countries, and others, the only conclusion that could
possibly named it that it is inconclusive if the death penalty deters crime,
as it varies from country to country.
Other Works Cited:
