What Is Neoclassical's Attitude Towards Capital Punishment

Attitudes towards Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment is described as the act of the government legally killing a person that is charged and convicted of committed a crime. The act of Capital Punishment is reserved for serious crimes that have been committed that usually involve the death or injury of a lot of people. The concept of the death penalty can be traced back all the way to eighteenth century B.C and located in the code of King Hammurabi (Introduction to the Death Penalty). Ever since the first introduction of the death penalty, there have been groups for and against the use of it. This drastic differencing opinion has never been more apparent than in today’s society; there are organizations, such as Fight the Death Penalty, that are …show more content…
Neoclassical pulls a lot of its beliefs from the classical school, yet it made changes in spots where it felt like the classical was mistaken. One of these beliefs that the two schools do not share is the Death Penalty. The classical school of criminology believes in the use of capital punishment whereas the neoclassical does not believe in its use. The classical side believes in more of an equal punishment option, where if someone commits a crime, their punishment should almost match what they did; therefore, the Death Penalty is a necessity (Classical school). This reasoning is due to the due that they believe that human are reasoning creatures, so if they think about committing a crime and know the punishment will outweigh the crime, then they will not do it. Neoclassical criminologists feel differently on the matter, they take a more socialist approach to the matter. They believe that imprisonment is a better form of punishment because it provides the criminal the ability to understand what they did as wrong and take on a better life; therefore, the Death Penalty would not be necessary (Neo-classical