On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:22:01 -0400, Dave Smith wrote:

> On 25/09/2011 11:26 AM, Jerry Avins wrote:
>
>>>
>>> They also should bring back the electric chair and firing squads.
>>
>> If executions are to have any use, they should be deterrents.
>> Criminals should be hanged from a lamppost in the neighborhood where
>> they lived and left dangling for all to contemplate for about a week.
>> Otherwise, why risk killing someone who is really innocent?
>>
>
> There are a couple of problems with the idea of capital punishment as a
> deterrent. First of all, a portion of the population do not commit
> crimes because they are basically good people who know right from wrong
> and do not want to do wrong. Then there are those who try not to wrong
> because they are are afraid of the consequences. Then there are those
> who figure that they can get away with it or just don't care if they get
> caught and sent to jail. In some circles it is a badge of honour to have
> been in prison.
>
> A lot of murders are crimes of passion. People argue or have fits of
> jealousy and simply aren't thinking with their brains. Deterrence does
> not work on those people. However.... a lot of murders, especially
> domestic murders are the culmination of an escalating pattern of
> violence. There are usually preceded by incidents of lour arguing,
> verbal abuse and physical abuse. They happen more frequently among
> younger couples and usually happen when they are drinking heavily.
>
> Perhaps a better way to deter murders, at least in domestic situations,
> is to react more harshly to the incidents of domestic violence that
> precede the murders.

another problem with the death penalty as a deterrent is that murder rates
are higher in states with the death penalty that states that do not:

<http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates>

your pal,
blake