tesis

Is the death penalty effective?

The classical view that says the death penalty acts as a deterrent based on the following assumptions: (1) take the life of a rational act is sentenced; (2) makes other criminals, for fear of losing his life, avoid committing offenses subject to penalties with such conviction; (3) deprive criminals who decide the life of another human being are not restorable;and (4) these people only deserve to die at the hands of the state.
Another point to consider usually advocates the death penalty is that it is cost-effective. Whereas prison overcrowding in prisons and the costs of maintaining closed the inmate, the death penalty is then the cheapest and most effective solution.
Consider two points: the death penalty as a deterrent, and the cost of the deathpenalty.

Does it stop the death penalty crimes?
Subsequent studies that followed the same methodology came to a conclusion. One possible explanation for this phenomenon lies in the brutalizing effect which states that criminals are motivated to challenge the death penalty when it receives attention from the authorities and the public. It seems to say "pay brutality with brutality."
Apublic opinion survey conducted in the mid 1970's by Widmar and Ellsworth (1974) reveals that 90 percent of citizens support the death penalty in the United States continue to be in favor of it though detuviese no crime. It seems that the old adage of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" is the prevailing therein.

Is it cost-effective the death penalty?
Although there appears to be astudy of costs and benefits on the application of the death penalty in the U.S., it is known that it has generated an onerous process that has "skyrocketed" upwardly costs and fees of the processes court. Experience dictates that jury selection is more difficult and expensive; trials are longer, tedious and full of technicalities; the death sentence and stay in prison is recharged with a greaternumber of claims and counter-claims of activist groups; and also a very strong emotional charge is imposed on the friends and family of both defendants and victims. Obviously, the words of Federal Judge Alex Kozinski, in the epigraph to this work, masterfully condensed the economic effectiveness of the death penalty, "is the worst of all worlds."

conclusion
There is no clear evidence that theapplication of the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. Neither seems to be cost-effective. In addition there is always the possibility that an innocent is executed, as happened in March 1988 with Wille Darden in Florida and in 1992 with Roger Coleman in Virginia.
In a supposedly democratic and Christian society, the death penalty seems to follow the old adage of "an eye for an eye and a toothfor a tooth." Is this the correct and successful position in a civilized society?


Most Latin American countries have abolished the death penalty, while in countries like the United States, Guatemala and most Caribbean states is still applied. In Asia the death penalty is allowed in democracies such as Japan and India. In Africa, still used in Botswana and Zambia.


In many countries wherethe death penalty still applies, is used as a punishment for crimes of murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military law. In some countries also applies to punish sexual crimes, such being considered adultery or sodomy. It is also punishable by death in some Muslim countries, apostasy, the formal renunciation religion. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of political corruption arepunished by the death penalty. In some countries the death penalty is used for political reasons, with the widest circulation, as "punishment" of masses in 2007 in North Korea a director of a company was publicly executed in a sports stadium, with 150 000 people as punishment for making overseas calls.

According to the annual report of Amnesty International judicial executions in 2003 were...