4 ms·

I believe there are heinous crimes that do. Both fitting the crime and as a deterrent.

• bmicraft 2y ago
  > as a deterrent Do you have any sources supporting the claim that does actually deter anybody?
• tristan957 2y ago
  The US has more violent crime than other Western countries, so as a deterrent, it does not work. Perhaps instead of wasting money on death penalty appeals and killing innocent people, we should think about how we as a country can overhaul the prison system and our societal structures.
  • IncreasePosts 2y ago
    That logic doesn't follow, because it could be the case that America would be even more violent if we didn't execute people. Having said that, I find the deterrence angle suspect. Very few people would consider spending the rest of their life in jail acceptable, but being put to death unacceptable.
  • dawnerd 2y ago
    For profit prisons are not helping anything. They have zero interest in rehab and reformation - and unfortunately a lot of people in the states and beyond believe once you're a criminal you're tarnished forever.
  • mercutio2 2y ago
    It's extremely difficult to compare crime statistics that don't involve death. There's under reporting right and left, and there are classification problems. With that said, I don't think it's true that the US has, per capita, significantly more violent crime than the median Western country. What we have is a LOT more guns, which increase the probability that our violent crime becomes lethal. We DO have vastly more incarceration than most other countries, though.