I don't think there's any evidence to support the assertion that the death penalty is an effective or consistent deterrent. In fact there are those who suggest that the death penalty (in places where it is used) promotes murder instead of deterring it. In addition to this, the murder rate in Canada dropped after the death penalty was abolished there.
Some crimes are so harmful to society that I think the primary objective should be to remove the perpetrator from society, not necessarily as a punishment, but so that society is protected.
There are some crimes where the potential sentence acts as a deterrent. An example might be car cloning. On the one hand, if you were caught with a warehouse full of stolen cars, you might be looking at a custodial, and some people may be put off such a crime because of this. It would be an informed decision whether or not to do the crime, based on the perceived risk involved, and the estimated sentence if caught. Murder and attempted murder on the other hand are not always committed by people who are thinking as rationally as the potential car cloner in the first example, who makes a calculated decision. If a man comes home and finds his wife in bed with his friend, and stabs him to death, he's likely to do this in a fit of rage, and as such, will not be subject to the normal rational thought process where possible capture, and the question of what sentence he might get, are likely to be considered. The fact that he might be put to death for his crime would not necessarily deter him from killing or trying to kill, in the heat of the moment. In other words, to someone in that situation, it wouldn't make any difference whether the likely sentence was hanging or community service, he's going to do it anyway.
The main reason for prison is to protect the public. ........
Have to agree there. But I would say he should be put away indefinitely, or at least until he is no longer a risk to society, which I'm sure he is at the moment.
If we were really serious about cutting down deaths, we would have mandatory 20 mph speed limits in town with speed automatically controlled by GPS tracking and comprehensive segregated cycle paths.
Alternatively, we could just teach pedestrians to look both ways before crossing the road. It would be much cheaper. I'm sure there used to be public information films on tv about it years ago.
Repeat offenders can go out time after time only to re-offend and then some of them go on to kill innocent people. If they were dealt with properly the first time they wouldn't get a chance to do it and the world would be a much safer place for us all.........
Yes, that's definitely something that needs to be urgently addressed. There have been far too many cases where nutters have gradually upped the ante and ended up killing. Raoul Moat is a recent example that comes to mind. There are plenty like him who could and should be taken off the streets, with much longer sentences based on their previous crimes, for the protection of society. Not that it's likely to happen anytime soon. You've only got to read news reports to hear how frustrating it is for serving police officers to see offenders get bailed and go straight out committing crime again, time after time, with magistrates and judges restricted by rules and sentencing guidelines, and oh dear, they've closed a few more prisons, we'll have to sentence them to a 2 week holiday in Spain instead.
