NCJ Number
74972
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1980) Pages: 537-544
Date Published
1980
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Historical cases of certain executions carried out in the United States and the events that surrounded them generally show that capital punishment has failed as a deterrent and that demoralizing effects have far outweighed any conceivable deterrent value.
Abstract
Newspaper and journal accounts of executions from colonial through modern times demonstrate that deterrence has failed among those groups who should have been particularly susceptible to any deterrent effect. The cases cited provide evidence that public executions sparked violence in crowds that gathered to watch them, and they inspired young observers to imitate the executions, killing themselves or playmates. Lawyers and law enforcement officials who were intimately acquainted with the punishments for capital crimes have also not been deterred historically from committing them. Relatives of people executed have also frequently followed their relatives to death at the hands of the State by committing crimes they knew to be punishable by death. People with 'death wishes' have also committed murders throughout history so that they would be executed, lending credence to the idea that executions may even trigger crime. Proponents of the deterrent theory cite statistics that fail to take into account the unique circumstances of each crime and criminal, a failure that casts substantial doubt on the accuracy of their data. Footnotes are included. (Author abstract modified)