Is the Death Penalty Effective

There does seem to be evidence that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to some people and for that reason it should be available to judges. In the UK the death penalty for murder was abolished early in the 1960s. Since then, murder has gone from being almost unheard of to being a daily affair, so routine as to be hardly newsworthy (James, 33-40). It is true that the crime rate had been slowly rising before the death penalty was abolished, but the explosion of violence since has been quite extraordinary. Not all of the increase can be attributed to abolition, of course, since society itself has changed a great deal (James, 86). However, the absence of the death penalty has meant that no criminal, sexual pervert or street punk needs to worry about what he does (James, 33-40). The worst penalty will be jail, with time off for 'good behavior'! Over the past many years, people have argued over the effectiveness of the death penalty. The majority of executions have come from convictions of homicides (murder), though execution has been a choice in punishment for rape, treason, kidnapping, and armed robbery (Arriens, 22). Many people consider the death penalty as immoral and ineffective to deter crime. These people are half right; it is an ineffective means to deter crime (Hood, 75). With this understood, it is time that we need to make a reform in the death penalty to make criminals, or future criminals, stop from murdering, raping, kidnapping, or robbing. Back in Ancient Rome, under the reign of Justinian I, around 533 AD, many crimes fit the description for the death penalty. These reasons included, but were not limited to, rape, treason, embezzlement, forgery, and kidnapping (James, 33-40). Murder, however, was punished by banishment, a worse punishment than death itself in those days (Arriens, 22). In England during the Middle Ages, any serious crime, listed as arson, burglary, counterfeiting, murder, rape, and treason, was punishable by the death penalty. Currently, the death penalty is used mainly in cases of treason and murder. Most of the other listed offenses are punished with lengthy jail terms (U.S. Dept. Justice, 31). Through these ages, technology has helped advance the uses of the death penalty. In the days before Justinian I, most criminals were put into the Coliseum and made to fight either trained gladiators or half-starved lions. Later, after many centuries, executions became a popular public affair. Customs of those days were to pay the executioner some money for a clean swipe; using an axe was not very accurate, and most executioners took two or three hacks before cutting through the neck, as most executions were beheadings (James, 33-40). Hanging, of course, was still an option, but if the rope did not snap your neck, then you would slowly choke to death on the rope. In those days, public executions was a very useful deterrent for crime; many people feared the execution for the possible 'mishap' that ...