Capital Punishment: Deterrent Effects & Capital Costs
Publication year:
2010
| Cataloged on:
Apr. 04, 2011
ANNOTATION: In a time of severe budget cuts, and with each execution costing between $2.5 and $5 million, the benefits of capital punishment are being critically examined. This article argues that capital punishment has little deterrent effect and that funds spent on it can be better utilized elsewhere in the criminal justice system. In particular, the author points out critical flaws in those deterrence studies that seem to suggest that capital punishment has some impact on homicide rates; flaws ranging from faulty statistical models to cut off dates of 1998 which excludes later years showing a decrease in executions and homicides.
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