Re: Particulars
:spin:
Wesley Lowe (author) on AuthorsDen
Wesley Lowe - The Necromancer Wars
This is not an independent study - the website is from a novelist and graduate in Physics. I think an
US Federal Govt or
FBI website review or even an Academic source would have been a better source. :roll:
You might have been better with a recognised
Academic paper by a pro-death penalty source like Ernest van den Haag
Here are the argument and response by him recorded at IAState
Argument againstMiscarriages of justice: Innocent people have been executed in the past and it is likely to happen again.
Response:
1. All human activities sometimes cost the lives of innocent bystanders, but we still do these activities.
2. IE more innocent people killed by car crashes than by mistaken executions of innocent people, yet we never argue that there ought not to be cars.
Argument againstDeterrence: There is no conclusive evidence that capital punishment is a deterrent.
Reponse:
1. Haag thinks that even if there were no deterrent value he would argue in favor of capital punishment from a retribution view.
2. It doesn’t have to deter every one in order to deter someone. And capital punishment is worthwhile even if it just deters a few potential murderers.
3. It is a better deterrent than prison because of its finality.
4. It is not worth saving the lives of murders because their execution might not deter others.
Even here, he has no proof to offer that the death penalty
deters anyone else from killing.
Take a look at the UN comparative study instead to give you a better picture.
US - many states have a death penalty yet your homicide rate per 100,000 of the population in 1998 was 6.9. similar study in the UK where the Death Penalty was only for high treason and sabotage during war (and has now been abolished in full) was 0.8 per 100,000 of the population in 1999 - and that is even with the possibility of
this HEUNI study on statistical variation due to different counting methods included.
If you want reviews -
Amnesty USA published the results of a
2000 New York Times comparison of homicide in US states
with the death penalty against US states
without the death penalty and guess where the rates were higher?
A September 2000 New York Times survey found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.
Even then however, it is wrong to just look at US rates or rates in any one country as a guide to whether the Death Penalty works as a deterrent or not - you have to look at International Comparative Studies of similar countries like that by the UN.
However, I guess the independence of many unhelpful UN reports is another big reason that the UN is so unpopular in the US. :roll: Trouble is - if you want to rubbish Amnesty - you have to rubbish the
New York Times study too.. trouble is the same facts came out of the FBI study.