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Death Penalty
An on-going Debate on Ethics and Morality
The debate on whether the death penalty, or capital punishment, should be utilized in the United States is best seen in the varied laws that exist within each state. For this reason, many states, most of which are in the northern parts of the country are against capital punishment, while many southern states support this kind of a law. The U.S. map is quite divided and many have joined the on-going debate on whether or not the U.S. should utilize this form of punishment. Despite the fact that most industrialized, westernized countries have rid themselves of the death penalty, and despite the fact that many argue cruelty and lack of civilized due process in utilizing such punishment, many of those who uphold the death penalty claim that it does work, especially in deterring criminals. The three articles presented below were thus retrieved in order to conduct further research on this issue and examine what beliefs are still held and why, from both the pro and against camps.
In choosing the three articles, the search topic was capital punishment. The ____ (School Name) Library provided over 300 results for this topic. When I tried typing death penalty, the same number of results appeared. However, I noticed that these results were not organized chronologically and thus decided to organize the search results by date, with the most recent first. This helped, as it narrowed down...
I decided to choose the subject of capital punishment solely and not focus on any of the justice or forensics aspects presented, and chose the three most recent and most pertinent articles within this subject.
The first article is entitled "A balanced study of the death penalty," and is written by Paul Rosenberg of the Denver Post. This article is aimed to give the reader a small glimpse into the extensive history of the death penalty in the U.S. from an objective standpoint. The author does not argue either for or against the practice, but simply elucidates the process and why it has existed in this country for so long, and in such different way in many of today's states. The most important piece of information in this piece is the author's explanation of why some states still choose to utilize the death penalty. For instance, southern states, many of which still utilize capital punishment, are traditionally believed to follow old English law (which placed a great stress upon this form of 'deterrence'). Furthermore, the South is also known to have deep seated prejudices against African-Americans, many of whom…
Death Penalty: Social Attitudes and Modern Alternatives The issue of the death penalty raises deep emotions on all sides of the debate. Many feel that the death penalty no longer holds value as a tool for society to prevent heinous crimes. In the past, the prevalence of the death penalty created a measure of deterrence on social behaviors. However, in modern life, there is no longer is a measurable deterrence felt
Capital Punishment The issue of the death penalty and capital crime has become one of the dominant issues debated in contemporary culture. The reason for this is firstly a moral questioning of the right to take a life, even when it is in retribution for extreme crimes like murder. The foundation of this contemporary attitude lie in the view that modern culture and society should be able to deal with extreme
Capital Punishment An Ethical Analysis & Position Statement Against the Practice of Capital Punishment Talia Villella Ethics Final An Historical Overview Issues and Relevant Facts Application of Ethical Theories Support for Capital Punishment Arguments Against Capital Punishment An Historical Overview The practice of capital punishment is often known by other names such as the death penalty or an execution, but the basic concept is that someone convicted of a crime that is worthy of their life (capital crime) is put to
Ethics of the Death Penalty The death penalty is a majorly decisive issue. Some countries feel that it is a cruel punishment and have outlawed it, such as England. Others practice the punishment liberally with small caliber crimes receiving the harshest possible punishment. In the United States of America, the death penalty exists in some states but has been abolished in others. Crimes that qualify for the death penalty are serious
Death Penalty All indications are that capital offenses are on the rise and the response to this phenomenon has been a cry to impose capital punishment as retribution. Certainly the issue is one of the most hotly debated in the world today; both for consideration of its humaneness as well as efficacy as a deterrent. For the purposes of this assignment we will examine the issue from both sides with the
However, sociologists argue that the retributive justice theory suffers due to the lack of appreciation of circumstantial causes involved in the commission of crime. By counting 'free will' as the only factor involved in a crime the deontological thinking lacks in the comprehensive analysis of criminal behavior. For instance the disproportionate number of crimes by the economically disadvantaged African-Americans when compared to Caucasians is a clear instance for external