The death penalty is a great deterrent to homicide
While that's appealing in principle, in practice it tends not to be true. Maybe a few people are deterred. But many or most homicides today fall into several categories. (a) drug or organized crime related, which the death penalty won't stop, there is too much money involved and too much confidence in not getting caught. (b) crimes of passion, often by people under the influence of alcohol or, more rarely, drugs, where the consequences are irrelevant -- a domestic argument that's been simmering for weeks or months or years erupts into violence, only this time it's fatal. Death penalty has no impact here. isn't going to stop the guy or gal from picking up the frying pan and bashing the other one on the head with it, only this time resulting in death. (c) political statements and terrorist bombings. Death penalty isn't of much impact here, either. (d) homicides committed in the course of other crimes. The deatlh penalty hasn't seemed to deter criminals from carrying guns, and shooting people when they want to.
Most studies show that the death penalty simply has little if any influence on homicides. Of course, it has an impact on recidivism -- a dead person won't commit a second murder. But that's a minimal number of cases. |
