AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE DEATH PENALTY

An Economic Analysis of the Death Penalty



An Economic Analysis of the Death Penalty

Outline

As a very strict penalty as serious as the criminal law,the death penalty has a very long history.Till now,it is still widely used.

But how to give it a restrict scope suitable for using and making develop its role,the academic field and the legal field each sticks his own view.

In this paper,it is held that this problem may be solved by studying and analyzing it with economic principle,thus investigating how to set up a scope suitable to use it;only then,can its effective be maximized.

The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison, and financial resources are scarce. The question is whether the death penalty is a wise use of scarce resources that could be used to more effectively prevent and reduce crime.

As you may already know, homicide rates and rates of violent crime are higher in states and regions with the death penalty than in those without it.

Many people wonder why and at what stage the death penalty process is so expensive. The bulk of the expenses are upfront, for pre trial investigations and the actual initial trial. How come??

An Economic Analysis of the Death Penalty

A lot of controversies over the years have been going on for and against the topic of capital punishment. The history of the putting people to death more commonly known as capital punishment is as old as the country itself or probably more older. In the old days, people were executed through stoning, crucifixion, burning at stake (which was common for the people who were declared witches) and so on. But what kinds of capital punishment or death sentences are given in this modern era? Is it the same as the old ones? The answer is no. In today's time capital punishments include injection or lethal gas, hanging, electrocution or shooting.

In the modern times, the world is divided in half as to countries that use capital punishment and countries that do not. Many nations including some of the developing nations have abolished the system of death penalty by any means or methods described above. One country where it would be greatly expected that this system does not operate is the United States of America (USA). Unlike other industrialized nations, some states of the US have capital punishment or death sentence system still intact. The above graph shows the increase and decrease in the execution during periods of 1930 to 2004.  If the western part of the globe is reviewed, it would be seen that US is the only western country where death sentences are executed. The executions in the country are linked to the legal system of the country which is considered to one of the most developed systems in the world due to its characterization for respect of human rights (Zimring, 2000).

 According to article by Zimring published in the MSN Encarta, the practice of death penalty and laws regarding it vary between the ...