Studies say Death Penalty a deterrent

[emily47017]

friend,

i posted those names in response to your direct question asking for specific cases; i spent all of 90 seconds with google. i’m glad to see that when you found the source inadequate you went out and found some sources for yourself.

buffalo kindly posted the relevant catechism on a separate thread: see here.

i don’t see why the catechism needs further elucidation for a faithful catholic. it’s pretty clear that the church’s position is that the death penalty is the absolute last resort, to be used only when guilt is fully proven and when no other means of restraining the criminal can adequately protect the public. at no time is deterrence mentioned as a consideration, nor the “balancing” of innocent victims of capital punishment against innocent victims of recidivists.

i’m no expert, but i’ll reckon that the majority of prisoners eligible for execution could do okay in the general prison population, and some percentage of them would need supermax. there would be only a very few – kingpins leading huge gangs from supermax via secret coded messages, for example – who could only be stopped at the end of a rope.

 

[Ender]

i don’t see why the catechism needs further elucidation for a faithful catholic. it’s pretty clear that the church’s position is …

As was pointed out by Cardinal Ratzinger, faithful Catholics may disagree about the use of the death penalty.

that the death penalty is the absolute last resort, to be used only when guilt is fully proven and when no other means of restraining the criminal can adequately protect the public.

Given the statistics I provided it is relevant to ask just how well protected the public is when murderers get out of jail and murder again.

at no time is deterrence mentioned as a consideration, nor the “balancing” of innocent victims of capital punishment against innocent victims of recidivists.

There are four justifications for punishment: rehabilitation, defense against the criminal, deterrence, and retribution. The problem with the Catechism is that it ties its teaching against the death penalty to only one of them (and not the most important one at that), and given that it is more than a little questionable that our current penal system actually protects society, even that one justification is suspect. Given that the topic of this thread is deterrence, the Church’s teaching is irrrelevant as it doesn’t even discuss that issue.

Ender

 

[Holly3278]

I could care less if it is a deterrent. The death penalty is still wrong! Life in prison is also a deterrent!

 

[redmars3000]

I could care less if it is a deterrent. The death penalty is still wrong! Life in prison is also a deterrent!

Not when you can get parole in 10 years.

 

[marcadam]

I didn’t say that the Death Penalty itself, to prevent the guilty from commiting a further crime, or to fulfil natural justice, is not Catholic, just that its deterent value is irrelevant to any discussion of the morality of capital punishment in Catholic terms.

Since deterrence is assuredly one of the purposes of punishment, there is no moral or ethical problem with weighing it as part of a consideration of the morality of said punishment. Its mere inclusion as a factor does not automatically cause the argument to be “utilitarian”.

 

[Ender]

"DL82:

*I didn’t say that the Death Penalty itself, to prevent the guilty from commiting a further crime, or to fulfil natural justice, is not Catholic, just that its deterent value is irrelevant to any discussion of the morality of capital punishment in Catholic terms. *

Since deterrence is assuredly one of the purposes of punishment, there is no moral or ethical problem with weighing it as part of a consideration of the morality of said punishment. Its mere inclusion as a factor does not automatically cause the argument to be “utilitarian”.

This is another instance of the problem with the Church’s latest statement on the death penalty: since it only discusses the question of protection of society people tend to dismiss the other three aspects of punishment, one of which of course is deterrance.

Ender