Conclusion from survey
This pie chart comes from a survey that we did. It is the perspectove on students of whether or not some crimes should be punishable by death. The questions are as follows:
What is your ethnicity?
For this question, we could tell the diversity of the answers we were getting. The majority of our answers were from New Zealanders, however, some responces were from people from European countries, the UK, and South Africa. This spread does offer a fairly realistic view on the question.
What are your views on the criminal justice system overall in your country of origin and please specifiy where and why?
The majority of people didn't know much about the criminal justice system in their place of origin. However, there was an interesting responce for someone from South Africa. They said that police can be bribed.
Do you think some crimes should be punishable by death, and why?
The answers were very different, yet most people voted in favor of having capital punishment. These were for reasons such as the person "cannot be integrated into society, so they can be a threat to society". People also believed that murder is a crime that can't just be payed for in a prison sentance. They also suggested that the system should be heavily monitored, so that no one dies unnecessarily. However, there were also arguments against that suggested that sometimes people can be wrongly convicted of crimes. Another point made against the death penalty is that it is a contradiction. For example if someone who murdered is killed on account of their crimes, then isn't the government as bad as the murderers?
What is your ethnicity?
For this question, we could tell the diversity of the answers we were getting. The majority of our answers were from New Zealanders, however, some responces were from people from European countries, the UK, and South Africa. This spread does offer a fairly realistic view on the question.
What are your views on the criminal justice system overall in your country of origin and please specifiy where and why?
The majority of people didn't know much about the criminal justice system in their place of origin. However, there was an interesting responce for someone from South Africa. They said that police can be bribed.
Do you think some crimes should be punishable by death, and why?
The answers were very different, yet most people voted in favor of having capital punishment. These were for reasons such as the person "cannot be integrated into society, so they can be a threat to society". People also believed that murder is a crime that can't just be payed for in a prison sentance. They also suggested that the system should be heavily monitored, so that no one dies unnecessarily. However, there were also arguments against that suggested that sometimes people can be wrongly convicted of crimes. Another point made against the death penalty is that it is a contradiction. For example if someone who murdered is killed on account of their crimes, then isn't the government as bad as the murderers?
Conclusion from Research
For the most part the death penalty is a good idea logically. The cost of prison institutions go down, and less crimes are commited due to humans inherent fear of death. This can be very constructive for a country, as more businesses may be encouraged to come if there are lower crime rates. Tourism will also be increased. A projected outcome for incorporating the death penalty, could provide the means for the death penalty to never be used. However, certain steps would need to be taken to ensure that there are no problems with the system. The prosecution would have to prove definitively that there are no other options for who commited the crime other than the person who is going to be prosecuted.
Ethically there are many issues that cannot be dealt with. For example, if someone has commited murder and they are sentenced to the death penalty - then aren't the governement commiting murder as well. And they aren't being punished. Also there are religious views, such as Christianity, that believe that there is no situation that a 'sin' like murder would be justified. These are all relevant concerns.
Therefore, we believe that the death penalty would be influential in some countries, the method in which the punishment should be implimented. This, if done right, could be done in a way that causes the death penalty to be used more as a deterent and less as an actual punishment.
Ethically there are many issues that cannot be dealt with. For example, if someone has commited murder and they are sentenced to the death penalty - then aren't the governement commiting murder as well. And they aren't being punished. Also there are religious views, such as Christianity, that believe that there is no situation that a 'sin' like murder would be justified. These are all relevant concerns.
Therefore, we believe that the death penalty would be influential in some countries, the method in which the punishment should be implimented. This, if done right, could be done in a way that causes the death penalty to be used more as a deterent and less as an actual punishment.