A handful of studies done over the past several years say, “Yes!”
Naci Mocan, an economics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, co-authored one of the original studies as well as another study that re-examined the data from the first one.
Both of his studies showed that for each execution there were five fewer homicides.
Commuting a death sentence? Five more homicides.
According to Professor Mocan:
“The results are robust, they don’t really go away. I oppose the death penalty. But my results show that the death penalty (deters) — what am I going to do, hide them?”
There are about a dozen papers since 2001 that claim to prove capital punishment can have a deterrent effect. The fundamental underlying principle is one common to economic students - if the cost of anything is too high, people will change their behavior.
If the price of houses is too high, fewer people will buy houses.
If the price of killing another person is too high, fewer people will kill others.
The studies looked at executions and homicides, both by year and by state and county, in order to figure out exactly what kind of impact the death penalty has on homicides. Taken into account was unemployment data, per capita income, and the probabilities of arrest, conviction and execution.
Among the conclusions:
- Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University. Other studies have estimated the deterred murders per execution at three, five and 14.
- The Illinois moratorium on executions in 2000 led to 150 additional homicides over four years following, according to a 2006 study by professors at the University of Houston.
- Speeding up executions would strengthen the deterrent effect. For every 2.75 years cut from time spent on death row, one murder would be prevented, according to a 2004 study by an Emory University professor.
Very interesting.
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I’m not perfect in anyway.
Maybe because…
I do believe in violence.
I do believe in torture.
I do believe in death.
I would be any humanitarian organization’s biggest nightmare.
That’s why I do want CP. I want effective CP and cheap CP.
I don’t want it to cost folks gazillion dollars just to eradicate a criminal.
I also say the law must be as close to 100% positive that the criminal is guilty.
Run your DNA test. Go over all your evidence/data.
I’d hate to CP someone that’s innocent of the crimes.
Therefore if we know for sure, we should proceed and kill.
Let’s clean out our prisons and make it part prison and part museum.
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This is interesting - we were discussing it the other day on the Olga Rutterschmidt and Helen Golay thread.
I truly believe that the statistics that have been used over the years by the anti-capital punishment people are skewed, but that is what has been reported ad naseum. It’s not surprising to me. They have an agenda. They want us to stop putting people to death, so they twist and turn the data till it says what they want it to.
But, just a little common sense would make most people wonder how that could actually be true. I don’t know how the DP could NOT be a deterrent to some people. It may have zero effect on crimes of passion or drug-related crime, but your average burgular or street thug would think twice about firing that weapon, if he knew he would have to pay with his own life.
As it is now, these thugs know that the criminal justice system in our country is a joke, and that even if they were to actually be sentenced to death, unless they were in TX, chances are they would die of old age, and not lethal injection.
I agree 100% with Turtle. Once they are sentenced - give it a second look. Make sure that the evidence is clear and compelling that the dirtball did it - and then fry him. Fast. Not after 20 years of being a “STAR” prisoner… maybe 3 weeks after conviction and review.
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Who cares if it is a dterent or not, the point of the death penalty should be to rid the world of another piece of trash wasting space, so that he/she cant hurt anyone else, and we won’t have to deal with them anymore.
I don’t think of it much as a deterent, because murderers dont care enough about their own lives, or they wouln’t murder in the first place. But I do understand the point of the article and the statistics given.
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Max wrote something about statistics the other day.
It went like this verbatim:
“The weird thing about statistics is how they can be manipulated to say just about anything you want them to say. It’s all about how you look at them.”
I agree. One must go into detail and explore EVERY variable.
Yes, DP/CP does save lives because our guilty shitsack is not out and about hurting people again.
They spend so much money housing these sacks. What if we could get a break from all the taxes?
If they wipe out a substantial portion of death row inmates, we probably could save some money (taxes).
I’m beginning to think that some organization is getting rich off of the prison stays. Someone is profiting from this madness.
My perfect world would be like the Charles Bronson, ‘Death Wish’ series. He goes around killing bad guys, taking the law in his own hands. *sigh* …only in my dreams.
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Turtle, you are 100% correct. This problem is much deeper than most of us know. And, it all comes down to the almighty buck.
The prison “industry” in this country is a HUGE business and they, and the politicians (of course) have seriously vested interests in keeping the prison system the way it is.
I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but if you dig a little deeper into the issue, you can piece it all together and see how and why our prisons have become the way they are, and why, even though there are some common-sense, relatively easy solutions to the crisis we face, there is no political/financial incentive to “fix” it.
As for the numbers, my husband says “never trust a statistic that you haven’t made up yourself.” My parents had a book on the shelf when I was growing up called “How To Lie About Statistics”. I remember reading it when I was quite young and realizing that numbers can and DO lie. Factor in the agenda of the people reporting these numbers, and they are pretty much worthless.
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I am completely serious when i say that they should televise every execution….say in a PPV format. Not only to i believe it would be a further deterrent, but I also happen to believe it would be quite popular. The profits could be used to further compensate the victims of the criminal, and even be used to offset the cost of providing for these scum.
I’d deffinately be a frequent subscriber.
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Why not? Public executions have been the rule, rather than the exception throughout history, including US history.
Put it on TV, plaster it on the cover of newspapers - hell, bring the bastards into the middle of the city park, and let them fry there.
Do it, and let the wanna-be thugs see it. Talk about “scared straight” lol.
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