Capital Punishment Is here to stay? Author name Author idClass and prof. nameApril 11, 2012Capital punishment is a widely debated issue, especially in North America. The basic premise of this practice is to deter crime by executing individuals who have done so in the past and thus setting a precedence to follow. There are many pros and cons to this issue from a social, economical and political point of view. In this paper, I will analyze the arguments for and against this practice and present a position with my findings. Document Preview: Capital Punishment Is here to stay? Author name Author idClass and prof. nameApril 11, 2012Capital punishment is a widely debated issue, especially in North America. The basic premise of this practice is to deter crime by executing individuals who have done so in the past and thus setting a precedence to follow. There are many pros and cons to this issue from a social, economical and political point of view. In this paper, I will analyze the arguments for and against this practice and present a position with my findings. The procedure for this analysis will follow highlighting notable cases in USA, where capital punishment is still applicable in most states, and isolate main facts from the news and studies. Finally, it is noted that implied deterrence of crime by way of capital punishment is too vague and cannot be accurately assessed. Economic theories and models do not apply to criminal behavior because the exploratory empirical studies do not infer any causality. According to Amnesty International, more than two-thirds of the countries in this world have abolished death penalty for all crimes. USA should follow suit and in my opinion should ban capital punishment for all criminal activities. It is often argued that capital punishment is enforced to punish the convicted and a case for deterrence of crime is not valuable. However, this assumption is not accurate because the purpose of doing-time in prison is to punish the criminals and correct their behavior so they can behave normally afterwards. Killing someone prematurely before eventual correction can be construed as counterproductive to the entire process. Studies [1] that cite released prisoners who went on to continue criminal behavior can be viewed as outliers in the process. The correctional system, akin to the judicial system, is not perfect. A system needs to be refined by improving on its faults. There are also many other prisoners that are released who do not indulge in criminal activities [2]. Attachments: Capital-Punis.doc Detailed-Outl.docx Instructions.doc