There are 31 states where capital punishment is legal. The most common method of execution is lethal injections. Although so many of the states are in favor of capital punishment, only about 33% of people are in favor of it. The majority, 39% of people, believe that instead of the death penalty the criminal should simply spend life in prison without parole and have to pay restitution to the victims or the family. Many professionals agree as well, and one source states that, “According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country’s top academic criminological societies, 88% of these experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.”
This shows that people want to punish the criminal for their actions, however this is uneffective. By putting violent people in a place surrounded by more violent people we perpetuate the cycle that is violence. We are sending in people who are already in a bad state of mind, and after being in the prison system they leave in a worse state. Most of these people are repeat offenders and are in and out of the system. In order to create long lasting change we must leave behind capital punishment and punishing the criminal and instead focus on rehabilitation.
There are many other options that not only take criminals off the street but focus on rehabilitation. There are medical approaches, such as looking at violence as a health issue that can be treated and prevented. There are also methods that involve increasing gun control and focusing on early intervention in the lives of at risk people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/05/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-executions-in-the-united-states/?noredirect=on
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jun/30/24-ways-to-reduce-in-the-worlds-most-violent-cities
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty
Halley, this is a great point! I really liked how you added other solutions to the issue of capital punishment at the end. This reminded me a lot of the debates my theology class had last year about the morality of capital punishment. Although we only answered if it was or was not ethical, it surely would have been interesting to discuss other options besides life in prison and the death penalty. Your connection to gun control (“There are also methods that involve increasing gun control and focusing on early intervention in the lives of at risk people”) was very interesting! I look forward to seeing what you write next! Nice job!