Job Discussion Forums

[Lanza-Armonia]

[leeroy]

People say the death penalty for things like murder is no deterrant (as when you're murdering someone the repercussions to yourself don't figure much in your thoughts, I would suppose...)

But for something relatively trivial like corruption, I imagine that the "death penalty as a deterrant" would work rather well. But, given the very nature of corruption, couldn't some simply bribe their way out of it if caught?

Corruption, to me, seems as much as anything a result of a society's way of thinking. Simply stating "It's bad, don't do it!" is a nice start - but not enough. As I understand it it is very difficult to get far in business in developing Asia without having to resort to bribes at some point. If this is the case, then the corruptors and corruptees (if there is such a word) are not to blame in their singularity - the overall social and business climate is also to blame. And these are notoriously harder to electrocute...

[denise]

Wait--look at our choices in the poll. Can't we be opposed to it without bringing God into the equation?

d

[ls650]

I think that some people commit crimes so heinous they DO deserve to die for what they've done - but I don't think the 'state' should have the power of life and death over individuals, simply because that power tends to be abused for political purposes.

[Dr.J]

The death penalty seems illogical to me, as a dead person hardly realises they are being punished, because they are dead.

So it only has a use as a deterrant. But it seems to have no obvious deterrant effect, if you compare the crime rates of countries with and without the death penalty.

I think that crime is caused more by other motivational factors (such as poverty, drug addiction, mental instability), rather than lack of punishment. If suddenly tomorrow it was legal for me to commit crimes, I wouldn't go around killing people or stealing things.

Having said that, perhaps in developing countries sometimes a certain amount of brutality is necessary to keep order?

[Roger]

For any punishment to be effective,the society must practise strong Cohesion. Do we want to go back to tribal existences where Shaka Zulu has the right to expel any member for disobedience, which inevitably lead to a life in misery, potentially in death through starvation?

A modern society offers you a modicum of privacy and independence; it's based on mutual trust and legal means such as contracts.

We know temptations lurk out there. Some are stronger to withstand them. Most are not strong enough. Remember when the first supermarket came to your neighbourhood? How many people got caught shoplifting then?

Call it "anonymity" if you like. We all have to learn to coexist, cohabit in a modern world. Maybe our moral principles are good, but they cannot survive unless we change our outlook.

That's a job for philosophers and theologians, I suppose, but it's also our duty to adhere to principles elaborated by them.

I personally hate the death penalty, and I think nations that still practise them are backward mentally. CLearly, capital punishment has revenge as its top priority, not reform of the culprit. There is no good to expect from it except a deterrent effect.

But if people have become cynical - as we can observe in democratic societies around the world - they lose respect for, and trust in their law-enforcing institutions. We don't believe law enforcement agencies to be incorruptible and respectful of the same laws that they want us to respect.
That's why the death penalty is a barbarous joke.
Have youseen DEAD MAN WALKING (title?)? Three men on death row being executed one after the other. Each was absolutely guilty, and accepted his guilt.
But they all became model citizens while in prison awaiting their final hour. One raised and trained a mouse to do tricks. There was a symbiosis between the man and the mouse; one of the guards jumped on it to kill it. Another prisoner sort of resurrected the mouse to life, and he helped the director's fatally ill wife recover.
Yet he had to die!

In China, the death penalty is a political instrument to "scare the monkey" into submitting to authority.
Ten years back, a person could get the death penalty for stealing several tens of thousand yuan; now it's several millions (and aggravating circumstances). There are, if I remember correctly, over 60 defined acts of crime that attract the death penalty.

Yet, authorities are trying to "humanise" this grisly act. The lethal injecdtion has been introduced since 2001, in some provinces anyway. In Fujian province, the chief of the execution commando allowed a bunch of murderers and pirates to get drunk before they were shot. For a convict to see his family one last time ibefore his killing is another step towards humanising the process.
Eventually, I think they have to stop executions.

Crime is going to increase in spite of death penalties being meted out.