scrapking said:
Psychologists tell us... and it makes a tonne of sense... that the death penalty is not any kind of deterrent to the kinds of crimes that prosecutors seek the death penalty for. Most crimes where the proesecution asks for the suspect to be put to death are for crimes of desperation, or crimes of passion. You kill your partner in a fit of rage, you do a violent crime (and someone gets hurt) because you're desperately poor, etc. For those kinds of crimes, generally *no* punishment could be any kind of deterrent, because the person is not acting in a cold and calculated fashion, they're acting out of passionate impulsiveness. And if they *are* doing that kind of crime in a cold and calculating way, then they're likely a sociopath and that's another kind of criminal where no punishment is going to act as any kind of real deterrent. Public hangings, if anything, might embolden some potential criminals because they're lonely and/or wrong in the head and may appreciate the notoriety of their anticipated punishment. |
I question your data- i do not think it is close to acuarate (re the types of crimes that are sentanced to death
Re public hanging - it would very much be a deterent- someone who wants notatriety shoots up a public place or something that takes innocent lives or some other high profile, top of the news act- - hanging in the wind, dead is something that would show a high majority of violent criminals that they should think twice before pulling the trigger- most or at least a high % of the murders in the US are seneless and avoidable even in the context of crime, passion etc- In other wordss, even in the act of a crime, the mrder that transpired served no actual pupose- or they are gang/drug related or for "dissing" someone - It is amazing how little some people will kill another for-
