Open Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Open - Essay Example An objective and critical look at the main arguments advanced in favour of death penalty shows that the arguments are flawed and not based on facts. For the purposes of objectivity, let us critically analyse the two main arguments advanced in favour of death penalty. To begin with, let us critically look at the argument that death penalty deters crime. This argument is actually one of the main arguments advanced by the proponents of death penalty in support of their view that death penalty is an effective form of punishment. The proponents of capital punishment contend that, by killing criminals through capital punishment, we deny the criminals any other opportunity to commit crime, hence reducing crime in the society; also, the proponents of capital punishment argue that through subjecting criminals guilty of grave crimes to capital punishment, we scare other potential criminals from committing such crimes in future. A critical view at this position, however, shows that capital punishment does not deter crime. This is because there is absolutely no scientific proof that capital punishment deters crime. On the contrary, studies in social sciences have shown that there is actually no correlation between death penalty and crime; studies in social sciences have actually shown that death penalty does not deter crime (Goel, web). For this reason, therefore, death penalty is an ineffective form of punishment because it does not deter crime. The second argument advanced by the proponents of capital punishment is the argument that death penalty is an effective form of punishment because it ensures that justice is done to both the offended party and the offender. The main argument here is that heinous crimes are extraordinary forms of injustice to the victims of the crimes; for that reason, it is only an extra-ordinarily grave form of punishment that can compensate for the grave