Perhaps one of the oldest written manuscripts of law would be the Code of Hammurabi, which dates back to early Babylonian times. The code consists of 282 laws, with the resulting punishment usually being death. Some 4,000 years later, our modern society has vastly improved and evolved upon Hammurabi’s code, yet death still remains a viable punishment for certain offenders. However, is the death penalty actually good policy? To examine this, areas such as deterrence and motivation will be examined.
There has been a plethora of research done with regards to the deterrence effects of the death penalty, yet in remains largely in support of a lack of deterrence effect. Choe (2010), compared states from 1995 – 2006, which had the death penalty to ones that had not and then compared their …show more content…
This susceptibleness can be examined further, as it was by Dambrun (2007), Dambrun, a researcher from France wanted to examine if there was a link between racial prejudice and support for the death penalty. He found that, “the death penalty is strongly and positively correlated with the scale of prejudice towards ‘‘Arabs’’ and immigrants, both overall evaluations of ‘‘Arabs’’ and ‘‘Blacks” (p. 234). This suggests that there are ulterior motives the lead into the death penalty, which cannot be allowed for the death penalty to be considered good policy. In addition to minority motives, there are also religious ones. Miller and Hayward (2008), found that,
Fundamentalism, belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible, the perception that one’s religious group favors the death penalty, and the belief that God requires the death penalty for murderers all predict greater verdict preference strength in the direction of the death penalty (p. 121)
Therefore, the establishment of a minority bias and now a religious bias has been noted and confirmed, undermining the validity of the death
There has been a plethora of research done with regards to the deterrence effects of the death penalty, yet in remains largely in support of a lack of deterrence effect. Choe (2010), compared states from 1995 – 2006, which had the death penalty to ones that had not and then compared their …show more content…
This susceptibleness can be examined further, as it was by Dambrun (2007), Dambrun, a researcher from France wanted to examine if there was a link between racial prejudice and support for the death penalty. He found that, “the death penalty is strongly and positively correlated with the scale of prejudice towards ‘‘Arabs’’ and immigrants, both overall evaluations of ‘‘Arabs’’ and ‘‘Blacks” (p. 234). This suggests that there are ulterior motives the lead into the death penalty, which cannot be allowed for the death penalty to be considered good policy. In addition to minority motives, there are also religious ones. Miller and Hayward (2008), found that,
Fundamentalism, belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible, the perception that one’s religious group favors the death penalty, and the belief that God requires the death penalty for murderers all predict greater verdict preference strength in the direction of the death penalty (p. 121)
Therefore, the establishment of a minority bias and now a religious bias has been noted and confirmed, undermining the validity of the death