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DEATH DETERS

Unsurprising findings from new studies:

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented ...

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise.

“I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

Posted by Tim B. on 11/18/2007 at 07:39 AM
  1. Actually it’s not there as a deterrent, or even as retribution.  It marks the place that the society gives to the voice of the victim, a voice that is missing.

    Those societies that still have a place for the voice of the victim, anyway.

    Deterrence would be a plus, but is not the reason for it.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2007 11 18 at 07:51 AM • permalink

  2. well isn’t that an inconvenient study. One of the central arguments against the death penalty has always been that it isn’t a deterrent, any more than alternatives such as long prison sentences.

    Posted by daddy dave on 2007 11 18 at 07:53 AM • permalink

  3. #1 It marks the place that the society gives to the voice of the victim

    Unfortunately in the topsy-turvy world of moral relativism it often seems the perpetrator is the victim, and those who suffered at his hands merely the expression of his victimhood.

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 11 18 at 08:07 AM • permalink

  4. Prevents recidivism ...

    Posted by BIWOZ on 2007 11 18 at 08:08 AM • permalink

  5. University tests have proven that executed killers never re-offend.

    Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 18 at 08:26 AM • permalink

  6. This will certainly clarify the moral issues, which are merely obscured by the claim that the death penalty does not have good consequences. Those opposed to it will now have to argue that they are prepared to see some finite but non-trivial number of extra deaths in society rather than accept the death penalty as a legitimate judicial option. That’s not to say that that’s not a reasonable position, just that it’s one that they’ve been able to avoid being explicit about.

    Posted by SteveGW on 2007 11 18 at 08:34 AM • permalink

  7. Frickin geniuses, with lasers on their heads.

    Posted by Mike_W on 2007 11 18 at 08:35 AM • permalink

  8. “But not everyone agrees that potential murderers know enough or can think clearly enough to make rational calculations. And the chances of being caught, convicted, sentenced to death and executed are in any event quite remote. Only about one in 300 homicides results in an execution.”

    Surely only someone considering a pre-meditated murder would be dissuaded from carrying out thier plan by the possible penalties. I’d be surprised if many ‘crimes of passion’ etc could be included in this.

    Posted by R Gehlen on 2007 11 18 at 08:36 AM • permalink

  9. Surely only someone considering a pre-meditated murder would be dissuaded from carrying out thier plan by the possible penalties

    It keeps julia from knifing kevni in the back.

    For now…...........

    Posted by surfmaster on 2007 11 18 at 08:47 AM • permalink

  10. “I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

    No shit, really?

    Odds are that if executions were held in FRONT of the public, the deterrent effect, would have an even be greater.

    Yes, in public. You know like the animals that commit capital crimes do.

    I would imagine, a fair number occur,  under the cover of darkness, but it is still in the public arena.

    Posted by El Cid on 2007 11 18 at 09:28 AM • permalink

  11. The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

    You’re welcome.

    Posted by paulris on 2007 11 18 at 10:39 AM • permalink

  12. “I personally am opposed to the death penalty”

    And if stopping a single execution only costs 3 to 18 deaths it’s worth it, because execution is bad.

    Posted by Arty on 2007 11 18 at 11:01 AM • permalink

  13. “I personally am opposed to the death penalty,”

    That’s nice.  All states have the death penalty, they always have and they always will, whether you oppose it or not.

    The only thing that ever changes is who the penalty is applied to and what offense merits the penalty.  If you don’t believe that’s true, then go to supposedly death penalty free France and try to shoot a cop, and you’ll find out that, leftoid hogwash to the contrary, they still have the death penalty there.

    Posted by Dave Surls on 2007 11 18 at 11:09 AM • permalink

  14. If I was a very very rich man, I’d buy all the homes next to politicians and judges - and stuff them with ex-convicts, murderers and rapists - whom the former agree should be given a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th chance at rehabilitation.

    Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2007 11 18 at 11:28 AM • permalink

  15. There are two reasons for sentencing those found guilty of crime:
    1) to remove the criminal from society, and
    2) punishment in accordance with the severity of the crime.
    If the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, why bother?

    Posted by SandiM on 2007 11 18 at 11:54 AM • permalink

  16. It certainly stops them from reoffending, although then they become heroes to some people on the Left.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 11 18 at 12:06 PM • permalink

  17. Actually it’s not there as a deterrent, or even as retribution.  It marks the place that the society gives to the voice of the victim, a voice that is missing.

    Well said, sir!

    Posted by rightwingprof on 2007 11 18 at 02:05 PM • permalink

  18. “I personally am opposed to the death penalty, but my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

    Refreshing intellectual honesty.

    Posted by Graham on 2007 11 18 at 02:14 PM • permalink

  19. I’ve read it said that far from showing a disregard for the value of life, capital punishment actually demonstrates the high value we place on it.

    —Nick

    Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 11 18 at 04:53 PM • permalink

  20. Post-sentence accommodation is also far more economical.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2007 11 18 at 05:54 PM • permalink

  21. The ugly truth is, there are some people who, by their actions, have abandoned any claim to humanity, and so should be removed from the world for the good of us all.  We need look no further than the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 11 18 at 05:58 PM • permalink

  22. There is one aspect which never comes up as an argument.
    Vicious killers (sex-murderers, torturers, thrill-killers) savour their crimes every waking minute.
    Incarceration is nothing, it’s not a punishment for them. They re-live their crimes, phantasise on it and relish it; they commit their crimes again and again in their minds.

    Posted by Honkie Hammer on 2007 11 18 at 06:18 PM • permalink

  23. > I’d be surprised if many ‘crimes of passion’ etc could be included in this.

    The “crime of passion” argument is largely a sham.

    Almost all of the people who kill happen to have a long history of “I just got mad and ...”, a history that the rest of us don’t have.  If their murders were actually a “crime of passion”, that wouldn’t be true.

    Posted by Andy Freeman on 2007 11 18 at 07:31 PM • permalink

  24. The proper purpose of the death penalty is justice.

    It is not primarily to discourage murder. Whether the death penalty prevents crime, or not, is irrelevant, or at best secondary.

    The effects of robbery, rape, assault, arson can all be mitigated to some extent by compensation.  But when you’re dead, you’re dead.

    Thus, the issue is not one of prevention, but one of absolute justice.

    Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 11 19 at 04:34 PM • permalink

  25. Honkie Hammer—Anyone who ever saw the video ofRichard Speckholding coke and tranny parties in his freaking prison cell would call for the death penalty in a hot second.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 11 20 at 12:10 PM • permalink

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