Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Death Penalty - Essay Example The truth is that when you for the right crimes the death penalty is a deterrent. But more than that, the death penalty is society’s ultimate sanction against those who commit the most heinous crimes. Its elimination is called for by people who in a general sense would tend to see criminals as victims, and refuse to actually see victims of crime at all. When you eliminate the ultimate price from the criminal justice system you simply are left with a bunch of sentencing requirement which varies only in tiny degrees: there is no way to express heartfelt anguish or outrage at a crime. Why the death penalty should continue in its present form is the subject of this essay. The death penalty is a deterrent to crime. Famous critics believe so (Mappes, 2007, 107). The reason why statistics may not always show this to be true—and are so open to misuse and manipulation by death penalty opponents is many homicides are not the first degree and do not involve a lot of premeditation. Many are caused by negligence or happen on the spur of the moment. For these sorts of crimes, capital punishment won’t be much of deterrence—and this fact will be reflected in the so-called statistics. But then again no public policy will provide much of deterrence for crimes that do not involve intention or are carried out on the spur of the moment. Indeed, I don’t believe there is much of a correlation between crime rates and the death penalty, to begin with. Murder is only a very small portion of crime statistics, and only a very small portion of murder would be deterred.