Criminology

Capital punishment has been a major question to the justice systems in the law courts of different countries in the criminal justice context. Many attempts have been made that make these systems look at the punishment as a method of choice for providing warning and deterrence to the violent criminal offences in the society.  Thus capital punishment is seen as the cheapest way of solving the criminal activities such as killings, which may involve mass killings.

Capital punishment is also known as the death penalty. It is a death sentence that is awarded for extreme offences such as murder, repeated crimes, multiple murder, and rape cases depending on the laws of various countries where such a person is considered as one who can be of great threat to the society if let free (Bienen, 1999). Proponents of capital punishment argue that is the moral obligation of the government and the society to protect the welfare and the safety of the citizens that is being threatened by the murderers within the society.

There are many reasons as to why capital punishment should be supported by the legal systems in many countries.  If for instance, a particular government does not get rid of the greatest threat in the society, there will be an increase in the intentional criminal offences being committed regularly (Feder, 2001).  The lives of the convicted criminals will be favored at the expense of the innocent victims and this will be more that injustice on the justice systems of a country (Feder, 2001).

According to many legal systems, death sentence is considered to be a purposeful imposition of suffering and pain into the offender (Zimring, 2003). This is true since most of the murders are committed through some influences such as drug addiction or even through passion in someones life.  Capital punishment is able to remove permanently the worst criminal from the society and also improve the long term safety of the citizens (Zimring, 2003). Unlike imprisonment where the criminals can escape prison to further their crimes, death penalty ensures that no further crimes can be committed after the punishment is imposed on the offender.

Another reason as to why death penalty is supported is the issue of cost of incarceration of criminals in jails (Cassel  Bedau, 2004). Resources have become scarce and need not be utilized for the least productive activities such as long term imprisonment for this type of law offenders. The finances should instead be used for the development of health facilities and other important facilities for the welfare of the citizens (Cassel  Bedau, 2004). An example is in America where the time that was spent on the death row was over a period of twenty years. In Britain the average time was ranging from three to eight weeks and only a single appeal was permitted.

In addition to that, the death row appeals processes are often complicated and expensive. This is used by many of the supporters of the law as a system of reforming the long appeals. The reforms of these appeals will be able to free the money that is used in the imprisonment and the cost will be cut to a greater extent (Bieneu, 1999). Some of the expenses that are associated with processes include and the trials that are expensive in terms of the price of the stake the evidence gathering to determine the guilt and the innocent and also for supporting the accused.

Still, Capital punishment proponents argue that murderers and the rapists in the society should be punished in direct proportion to their crimes committed and also they are liable for the crimes that they have committed (Feder, 2001). On the side of the society, the punishment will be seen as a humane way of solving the problem to the affected. This is so because it helps overcome the problem of their lost loved ones as a result of the crime and in return provide relieve to the families of the victims who went through the rough times (Feder, 2001). Their deep psychological and emotional experiences can come to an end if the victim is executed from their presence.

There has been a problem in the population of prisons and jails as it grows beyond its accommodation capacity (Zimring, 2003). This problem has been debated as being overcome by building more prisons and jails. This is likely to take a long duration of time and also be costly to the government as a budget has to be laid down to cater for this problem.  Death penalty has been found to be effective in solving the problem and the government money can be used for different important developments (Zimring, 2003).

An argument in support of the capital punishment is that justice should be administered to everyone and should be treated equally. The criminal deliberately commits a wrong and loss to others than he or she can bear.  If for example the society gives the offenders a punishment that is less than what they have caused to the society, then it will be favoring the criminals hence allowing them to get away with fewer costs than what their victims had to bear (Cassel  Bedau, 2004).  Therefore, by imposing death sentence to the murderers ensures that there is justice for all.

Capital punishment is very much acceptable for many countries in dealing with life threatening crimes. In fact it has lessened many crimes from advancing to greater heights across the society (Feder, 2001).

When a criminal is convicted and given a capital punishment, the other anticipating criminals are threatened from proceeding with the same. They are likely to restrain from such crimes due to fear of losing their lives. This has definitely reduced the crime rate in these countries.

Many issues have been considered in accordance to the capital punishment implications between the offender and the victims.  For instance, the criminal in the court has got a chance to prepare his death, his will and finally make the last statements. This however is not being provided for the victims. In additional to this when the criminal is being charged, he is being given the powers to defend his constitutional rights in the process. When all these issues are being considered against the criminal justice it is found better that the defendant should be given a death sentence to bring about a balance in administration of justice (Zimring, 2003).

If the systems of administering justice become lenient to this issue, as experienced in the past, there will be an increased rate of the crime rate.  In the past, millions of people were being murdered because the justice system was not working well. In the United States several people were killed others were knifed, shot and assaulted. This was because the justice systems were a bit lenient. Evidently, studies have shown that capital punishment can effectively reduce these serious crimes in the society. A good example is in New York State where death penalty has largely reduced capital crimes (Zimring, 2003).

Everybody fears death, if someone does not think about it consciously he or she is ought to think about it unconsciously. If every murderer was killed then the mass murders will reduce drastically (Feder, 2001). But this is beyond the reach of the common citizen in a society to carry out. This is the reason as to why the justice systems should engage themselves in the amendments of the laws that could encourage capital punishment to be able to make the appeals faster and using a shorter process.

If the murderers are imprisoned even for life imprisonment, there will be a higher possibility that they will continue being encouraged in the choice of their criminal path (Feder, 2001). This is as a result of the prison conditions that humiliate these criminals rather than to give them rehabilitation and isolation from the society. Death sentence eliminates the chances of improvement of crime in these criminals to higher levels and hence reduce even others committing murder in the prisons.

A more serious effect of keeping these criminals in the prisons is that, during the persons lifetime in prison, he undergoes several mistreatments and also severe punishments. At this moment the criminal might choose to make some choices. Some of these choices include the person being bitter and angry hence wanting to revenge after his or her release (Feder, 2001). Death sentence will eliminate this as it makes sure that the person does not come back to commit even more dangerous crimes.

Many countries have found out that the capital punishment has improved their administration systems in the provision of justice as it pertains to capital crimes. In the United States, the courts observed that the states which did not have the capital punishments had slightly higher capital crimes than those that used it (Zimring, 2003). In Canada, since the death penalty was introduced, the murder rates had reduced to a greater extent.  This should encourage different other countries to use the same approach in dealing with extreme crimes.

In conclusion, though the capital punishment is viewed as being a violation to the human rights, taking away of someones life and also committing of intentional murder, it is the best way of dealing with the most extreme crimes that threaten human life. Criminals need to be threatened to stop furthering their crimes.