Rationale for punishment and corrections originate from the social contract, the social contract creates the basis for the control that policemen carry. The social contract provides a logic for belief in controlling types of punishment and corrections. One of the ethical frameworks, that prevents rationale for punishment is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a principle that punishing an individual is effective if it benefits society. Relating to this principle is ethics of care, this principle helps both the victim become whole and the offender become a better person with rehabilitation. However ethical formalism is the opposite, this principle supports retributive justice. This supports owning up to a punishment, rather than judgement from …show more content…
This type of punishment is often questioned, is authorizing someone to get killed illegal? While many people find it inhumane, others find it just, according to both the Harris and Gallup Poll, “ In 2008, 63 percent of Americans supported capital punishment (Harris Poll, 2008), and in 2011, the percent dropped to a 38-year low of 61 percent, with 35 percent opposing capital punishment (Gallup Poll, 2011)” With results from this poll, some states actually take this punishment into consideration and use it on offenders who are often involved with homicide. The states that favor this type of cruel and unusual punishment in the United States, surprisingly are 31 out of 50. In amazement there are different forms of the way an offender is authorized to be killed. Offenders could be killed through hanging, the gas chamber, firing squad, electrocution, and lastly lethal injection. From the Death Penalty Information Center, “ 3 states (all have lethal injection as primary method) [use the Firing Squad method] Mississippi, Oklahoma, [and] Utah.” This method is only used if lethal injection fails to euthanize the offender. Even though many individuals agree with this type of punishment there are consequences that come along with …show more content…
As Coop had explained, people argue for those who are on death penalty, he explains that there are innocent people that are claimed of doing a crime that actually didn’t. “... capital punishment in this country is “irretrievably broken” and has withdrawn their intellectual rationale for it (Liptak, 2010). Morality from capital punishment is a strong topic of debate, it arises strong feelings on the part of many people. This meets the deterrence goal, which indicates scaring individuals in hopes that they wouldn’t do an act that is dangerous to society.
Analyzing all this information on capital punishment, I would agree with this type of punishment to an extent. I do believe that there are some innocent people on death row, praying for another hearing. Although, I do think pedophiles and mass murderers should get capital punishment. This type of punishment should still be legal, what I do no agree is the types of death an offender gets. The firing squad and the execution process is unbearable and inhumane, although according to the Supreme Court it does not object to the
The electric chair, hanging, gas chambers, and death by firing squad are all unnecessarily inhumane and hence, in my personal opinion, should all be declared by the White House to be unconstitutional. According to the Preamble to the Constitution, every citizen is guaranteed the right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” and since the first few words guarantee life, the death penalty itself would, technically speaking, be unconstitutional. I aver that even a murderer may sometimes feel guilty about what he or she has done. Another reason against capital punishment as stated in, “The Innocent on Death Row,” demonstrates that sometimes even the innocent are sometimes put on death row, because Henry Lee McCollum, who was nineteen at the time he was tried, and his half-brother, Leon Brown, who was fifteen at the time he was convicted, were both convicted and sentenced to death. Ever since they were released, the death penalty was made illegal for minors and mentally handicapped
More specifically, the criminal justice system uses four philosophies during sentencing. The four basic sentencing philosophies within the criminal justice system are rehabilitation, retribution, deterrence, and incarceration. Each punishment listed above will fit roughly into one of these philosophies commonly used. Rehabilitation is the belief that by addressing the causes of crime, society can reduce repeat arrests.
The information provided here, the ethical argument I might use to justify retaining this form of punishment over the long is using retribution. Retribution is a rationale for punishment that states that punishment is an end in itself and should be balanced to the harmed caused. In the textbook, it says that the retributive rationale for punishment is consistent with the social contract theory. The ethical argument I might use is positive retribution which is the demands that one is guilty ought to be punished. Retribution says that people who commit a crime deserve to be punished.
The attractiveness of this theory is primarily based on the ethical code that Hampton subscribes to, which is that pain-inflicted punishments should not be condoned when it comes to disciplining wrongdoers. Rather, constructive analysis done pertaining to why certain actions are morally wrong in society would be intellectually stimulating and productive for both the wrongdoers and the public, all while avoiding the infliction of physical pain. Compared to the retributivist argument, which circulates around the idea that the purpose of punishment is to make wrongdoers pay for their misdeeds, and that they should be treated the way that they have treated others, the MET is a more humane way to treat wrongdoers, and in the long run, would perhaps help them emerge from confinement as better citizens within society, rather than as potential repeat offenders. Therefore, the appeal of the MET stems from the positive implications of treating wrongdoers with respect and dignity, all while teaching them why their actions were wrong while simultaneously instilling positive and moral values in their psyche before allowing them to re-enter
Is the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment? I think that this can be explained through the way the inmates are executed. Firing squad, lethal injection, hanging, gas chamber, and electrocution are
The Death Penalty, loss of life due to previous crimes and actions, is believed by some to be extremely costly, inhumane, and cruel unlike some others whom believe it is just, right, and provides closure. The Death Penalty is not a quick and easy process. Most who get sentenced to deaths row wait years for their ultimate punishment of death. Some believe that it is not right to punish and kill a human for actions they have done because, they believe that the inmate should have another chance. Then others believe that it is right to punish someone for their actions especially if their actions involve killing another or multiple humans.
Capital punishment results in death by execution. Capital punishment is legalized in 31 states and abolished in 19 states (Death Penalty Information Center). I believe the death penalty should be legal in all 50 of the United States, especially when an individual commits first degree murder. First degree murder is defined as: in order for someone to be found guilty of first degree murder the government must prove that the person killed another person; the person killed the other person with malice aforethought; and the killing was premeditated. To kill with malice aforethought means to kill either deliberately and intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life (lectlaw.com).
Death penalty violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, and the guarantee to due process of law and equal protection under law, and thus should be prohibited in the United States. Capital punishment is an intolerable denial of civil rights and civil liberties and government should not have the power to execute people, in the name of the law or in the name of its people, especially when it does this in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion. Capital punishment is cruel because it dates back to times when slavery and branding were commonplace, and like those barbaric practices, executions have no place in our modern civilization. It is unusual because of all the Western industrialized democracies, the United States is the only country who considers this hideous practice as legal. It is unusual also in the sense that only a random fraction of criminals are convicted with this type of punishment.
Around the United States, there are substantial variations in the way people view methods of capital punishment. Some conclude it essentially violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, while others see it as the only form of justice. But even so, this does not remove the fact that there are thirty-two U.S states that support and act upon capital punishment. In fact, there is a total of five different methods of execution authorized by most states that currently have death penalty statutes. During the course of this paper, I will be discussing each method which includes: Lethal Injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging.
I am not in favor of the death penalty for the following three reasons: the government spends millions of tax payer dollars, each year, processing these cases, the death penalty is irreversible, and it is an ineffective deterrence to crime. First, I am not in favor of the death penalty because the government spends millions of dollars a year implementing this law. Depending on the state, a death penalty case tends to cost about two to four times as much as a non-death penalty case. These costs are only for the trial and they continue to accumulate after the sentence.
Capital Punishment should be outlawed because it puts innocent lives at risk, bad representation, and there are other alternatives. The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, more than 150 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally, and some
There are many arguments for and against capital punishment. Ernest van den Haag described some justifications for capital punishments. One of the main points he makes is even if the use of capital punishment is discriminatory leading to an unjust distribution, which he argues that it is not discriminatory, it should make no difference because it does not matter on the quantity of those executed, but it is more about the fact that these criminals are all guilty. Therefore it does not make sense to get rid of capital punishment on the basis that the system is discriminatory because those executed are guilty and therefore deserve their punishment. Another point he makes that ties into the first point is that making everything equal, such as making the amount of
Dr. Phil: As of November 2016, the death penalty is a legal form of punishment in 31 states (Death Penalty Information Center, 2017c). Of those states, 27 states actively administer the death penalty, while four states are currently under gubernatorial moratoria (Death Penalty Information Center, 2017c). The remaining 19 states do not have the death penalty as a form of punishment (Death Penalty Information Center, 2017c). There is a total of five approved methods of execution in the United States; however, lethal injection is thought to be the most humane method of execution and is the primary method used (Death Penalty Information Center, 2017b).
The idea of killing someone in punishment of a crime seems just to many, but others are against it. In fact, the death penalty is wrong and should be made illegal in America. Studies show that the death penalty is not deterrent to crime. Despite this, many feel that capital punishment is a good idea. It’s obvious that mistakes are made and innocent people have been sentenced to death.
The death penalty needs to stop because innocent people are dying, it does not make sense to kill killers as a punishment for killing because killing is bad, and that life in prison is a worse punishment than death to some people. According to Olivia Casino, an untold number of innocent people have died from false information that has put them on death row. In an article from Pantagraph Olivia Casino says that 1.6 percent of people on death row have been exonerated, but if the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, that is more than twice the rate of exonerations. People on death row should not be executed