Capital Punishment

[famousringo]

Kasz216 said:

famousringo said:

 

Capital punishment isn't going to make me safer, so what good is it to me?

3. Capital crime perpetuates a cultural myth that problems can best be solved by finding the right person and killing him. I used to think this Wild West kind of mythology was why murder rates were so much higher in the US than other heavily armed developed countries like Canada and Switzerland. After recently seeing some data on how closely gun ownership correlates with gun deaths, I'm not so sure anymore, but I think it's worth keeping in mind. 

It's not such a leap of imagination that if the state thinks the worst members of society should be killed, individual (well-armed) citizens might be justified in using lethal force to be rid of people they think are most horrible.

 

The majority of Gun Deaths are suicides.  Something like 2/3rds  in the US so that line of thinking doesn't really hold up.  When more gun are available, more suicides happen with guns because it's the quickest and eaisiet way to attempt suicide.  

 

Or for that matter... the easiest way to muder most people.   That people will use the most effective available tool to do something shouldn't be a surprise or change your opinion on anything.

Gun/Homicide rates are very weakly correlated, but show no correlation if you remove outliers like reputable scientists would.

Really things like poverty and gangs correlate much better when it comes to homicide.  "Wild West" attitudes I wouldn't be so sure about... well outside the feeling in some communties that the Police are untrustworthy and they have to rely on themseles/ No snitching culture.

 

That people are more likely to kill others because the government does seems unlikely... since if anything that gives people who would kill more faith in the government.   Wild West attitudes occur when people feel like they can't rely on the government.

I'd suggest that the reason why our murder rates are so high in the US at least is because a lot of poorer areas don't trust the cops because they can harrass.  Espeically criminals and people in gangs.  Homicide rates are highest among groups that face unusual poverty and have a high distrust for the police.   While groups that generally trust the police and do ok in the economy have murder rates consistant with Western Europe.

You can back out suicide if you like, that still leaves Americans seven times more likely to be murdered by firearm than Canadians, and four times more likely to die from firearm-related accidents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

The US has three times the guns. Interestingly, the three point spread between the two countries' gun murder rates matches the three point spread between their overall murder rates. 

Edit: However, I would never argue that poverty isn't a very important, perhaps the most important, factor in violent crime rates.