AJ Tapaatoutai

Freestone
English 12
Argumentative Essay

Death Penalty Efficiency

There have been approximately 1,423 executions that have gone through since the year
1976-2016. The highest number of executions ever gone through was in the year 1999 where
over 98 people were executed. This leads to my question, Is the death penalty effective? In my
opinion I do not feel that it is effective due to the fact that would it make us just as guilty that we
are killing a person who is convicted of killing someone or committing some crime that leads
into a death penalty sentence. I also feel as if I have not have the experience of wanting someone
killed by a death sentence. But I also feel sentencing someone to a death penalty is not going to
prevent anyone from doing the crime and that some of the people who sentenced to a death
penalty are mentally ill.
Do you think death penalty is efficient? Well, according to criminologists who were
surveyed this included the American Society of Criminology, Winners of the ASCs (American
Society of Criminology) Sutherland Award, and Presidents of the ASC between 1997 and the
present. Almost 78% of those surveyed said that having the death penalty in a state does not
lower the murder rate. (Lacock, 2009) So if it doesnt lower the rate of murder, does it increase
the rate? Some criminologists, such as William Bowers of Northeastern University states, the
death penalty has the opposite effect: ...society is brutalized by the use of the death penalty, and
this increases the likelihood of more murder. (Michigan State University and Death Penalty
Information Center, 2000) As I think about this the more I ask myself or as we all should, Is the
death penalty actually efficient? And I feel that the death penalty does no more than give the
government a threat to scare people with but people still do it anyways. In a study done on 500

AJ Tapaatoutai
Freestone
English 12
Argumentative Essay

U.S police chiefs about 57% said capital punishment does little to prevent homicides because
killers usually dont think about the consequences of their actions. (Beyerlein, 2009)
Greater use of the death penalty ranked last when the chiefs were asked to name the best
way to reduce violent crime. The top answers were putting more cops on the street, reducing
drug abuse and improving the economy to provide more jobs. (Beyerlein, 2009) I also feel like
this is true. If we would put more of the cops out there to stop and help people stop the abuse of
drugs and then there would be more people who are off the streets and doing something with
their lives.