Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Death Penalty - Essay Example There can be just a kind of crimes. when it should be applied. However, this creates a risk of the innocent killed. The issue remains controversial and now the every country is to decide if to use it or not. The main criterion is, of course, the effectiveness of death penalty. Abolition of capital punishment is a major term for European Community members. The same refers to economic and political partners of EC such as Ukraine, Russia or Croatia. On the other hand, this type of punishment was not abolished in the USA. First of all, relationship between homicide rate and deterrence should be identified. Till the end of 1970th in the United States cross-state comparison of homicide rates was applied. This approach did not allow identifying regional, ethnic, age differences of crimes throughout the country. Considering federal structure of the USA, the statistic tool should be oriented on regional variety and deterrent effect measurement. According to Paul Rubin, multiple-regression analysis meets the above requirements better, because it is applied to counties. â€Å"The analysis then can implicitly calculate the effect of each execution on the number of homicides that would otherwise have occurred.† (Rubin, 2002) This method of analysis even deals with a large discrepancy in date of crime commission and execution, which varies up to 10 – 15 years. Besides, results of the research reflect demographic, ethnic, sex, and age characteristics of the counties. This statistical tool proves deterrent effect of the death penalty in all over the country. For example, 95% confidence interval estimate reveals reduction of homicides by 8% - 28%. Nevertheless, the death penalty does not imply socially desirable deterrence. Robert Cottrol makes a historical overview of this type of punishment in the United States. The factors of publicity, criminal statistics, and method of