Capital Punishment 1978

Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the threat of capital punishment deters murders, saving large numbers of lives; other studies have concluded that executions actually increase homicides; still others, that executions have no effect on murder rates. Commentary among researchers, advocates, and policymakers on the scientific validity of the findings has sometimes been acrimonious. Against this backdrop, the National Research Council report Deterrence and the Death Penalty assesses whether the available evidence provides a scientific basis for answering questions of if and how the death penalty affects homicide rates. This new report from the Committee on Law and Justice concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates is not useful in determining whether the death penalty increases, decreases, or has no effect on these rates. The key question is whether capital punishment is less or more effective as a deterrent than alternative punishments, such as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Yet none of the research that has been done accounted for the possible effect of noncapital punishments on homicide rates. The report recommends new avenues of research that may provide broader insight into any deterrent effects from both capital and noncapital punishments.

Although capital punishment was not abolished until 1978, no one had been executed in Canada since 1962, a period of 25 years. This book describes the ongoing debate on the death penalty during that period, examining the arguments used for retention and abolition, the role that public attitudes played in the debate, the social utility of the death penalty (whether it actually deters would-be murderers), the effect that abolition has had on the operation of the criminal justice system, and the added problems created by life-sentenced prisoners in the prison system.

Presents divergent viewpoints on capital punishment in the United States.