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Utilitarianism And Punishment

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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 capital punishment in this country is “irretrievably broken” and has withdrawn their intellectual rationale for it (Liptak, 2010).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

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