Death Penalty - Deterrence to Crimes or Harsh Punishment?

            Before coming to the point whether death penalty serves as a deterrent to crimes or it is a harsh punishment, let us get a better understanding of what death penalty actually is. Death penalty, as we know it, is a form of punishment that leads a person to death based on the judgment of judges on the evidence provided by prosecutors. Although death penalty appears to be a very ruthless punishment but it is helpful in reducing the crime rate in any part of the world. The reason is that it injects a sense of fear into the minds of potential criminals that makes them think twice before planning to commit any sort of violent crime. Here, an argument is that death penalty is only a prevention measure for violent crimes because such penalty is not given for low-level crimes. However, the fact of the matter is that violence is a much more critical issue as compared to low-level crimes like stealing and burglary. Therefore, if a punishment like death penalty has to be made lawful in any criminal justice system, it should be only for violent crimes.

            Despite of the fact that death penalty causes fear among criminals, governments of many European and American countries, such as, France, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada have outlawed the implementation of death penalty as a crime deterrent. The reason can be the social pressure on the governments or a very strong criminal justice and law and order system of these countries that are able to prevent an increase in the incidences of violent crimes. On the other hand, in many African and Asian countries along with the United States of America where the crime rate has always been on rise, death penalty is applied as a crime deterrent.

In the view of proponents of capital punishment, death penalty should be a legal punishment because it serves as a deterrent to a wide range of violent crimes. However, there should be some relaxation for young adults of age between 18 to 25 years. Such criminals should be sent for rehabilitation in order for them to get a chance to restart their lives with an improved mindset. After all, life of every individual is sacred and it should not be taken away without giving the accused person a full chance of reformation.

Life sentence can be an option for punishing high-level criminals in which not only the lives of the criminals can be saved but also they can get a chance of rehabilitation as the result of which they can improve their mindset and become a socially acceptable person for their remaining life. Death penalty is very hard to be justified as an acceptable form of punishment because it snatches the right to live from a person. It not only creates many financial and social problems for the family of a criminal but also violates the basic human rights. Nevertheless, whatever the arguments may be, death penalty does serve as a source of intense fear for criminals that can stop many of them to commit violent crimes.