| First, let me say that i am someone who is coming from a background specifically educated in the Criminal Justice field. By this I mean that I will finish (9 more credits!) a Bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice this May and continue on to law school. I have actually focused my study on the areas that interest me, Adjudications and Corrections (as opposed to some of my classmates who concentrate in Forensics, Criminology, Police Process, etc).
All of that being said, the death penalty does not work. Not only does it result in innocent people being put to death (the seminal 1992 study by Radelet, Bedau, and Putnam says at least 23 in the history of the United States), it does not serve as a deterrant.
The study and measure of whether a particular crime can be prevented by punishment (because, after all, that is what most death penalty advocates say they are interested in, regardless of the fact that the real reason is often simple revenge) is called deterrence theory. There are two elements of deterrence theory: Certainty and Severity. In debating the death penalty vs. life imprisionment as a deterrent, we are debating the Severity effect of deterrence, that is, whether a more severe punishment will create a deterrent effect. The problem here is twofold: First, very few murders are premeditated as such. A 2002 Bureau of Criminal Justice Statistics study found that less than 21% of murders are premeditated. This means that for 79% of murders, the deterrence effect does not exist whatsoever, because the perpetrators did not think about anything regarding murder before the crime, let alone the possibility of the death penalty.
While it is somewhat of a stretch to extend this to think about how many murders were prevented by the death penalty being in place, I think it is safe to say that few criminals or would-be criminals thought about their crime in excess before their act. The majority of crime is irrational by nature. Rational criminals are few and far between, as I can attest to from my work in the Monroe County Public Defender's Office.
As far as the second half of this debate, that keeping serious offenders alive in prison is "coddling" them, again I refer to my work at the Monroe County Public Defender's Office. The common complaint among average working people that there are "only" 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week in which to get "everything" done is somewhat skewed in prision. The reality is that there are 24 hours in a day, and they must be filled with activity, lest the offenders turn to something more interesting, like assaulting other inmates or guards, using drugs, et cetera.
To those who would say to that "let them perform dangerous hard labor, with no tv, no meals but bread and water, and no education, reform programs, or anything like that," I remind them that over 99% of criminals will not die in prison. This means they will get out and return to your community at some point. As a civilized society, we must ask ourselves, what kind of people to we want to see when they get out of prison? Do we want to have improved their condition while punishing them, or do we want them to be even more bitter and dejected, incapable of doing anything but the behavior that put them behind bars in the first place? |