In a previous article, I discussed the fact that the U.S. is an outlier regarding incarceration rates, having a rate that is about 7 times the amount of typical OECD countries (the OECD is an international organization comprised of 34 countries, representing many of the wealthier countries in the world). Some people wondered whether the U.S's extraordinarily high incarceration rate is a reflection of a much higher underlying crime rate. In general, measuring crime rates is problematic due to the fact that most crimes are highly underreported. In fact, the phrase the "dark figure of crime" was coined to describe the amount of crime which is unreported or undetected -- for example, national citizen surveys like the British Crime Survey have estimated that the crime rate that is about twice as high as the officially recorded crimes rate.
So, the underlying national crime rates, a critical factor in the incarceration rate, is poorly measured or understood. Other factors that contribute to incarcerations such as the crime reporting rate, the arrest rate, differences in laws (for instance drug laws, repeat offender laws), sentencing policies also vary across countries.
One factor that we can measure reasonably accurately is a country's policy towards capital punishment since national policies are readily accessible and, for some countries, the number of prisoners executed is routinely published. Capital punishment, the most extreme example of judicial punishment, shows major variations across countries and between states within America. When we review the data, we see that capital punishment is another area where the U.S.'s justice system is again very distinct from most wealthy countries.
At least 23 countries were known to have carried out executions in 2010. Of these 23 countries, only 4 were classified as Very High Human Development by the Human Development Report, indicating that these were countries with comparatively high degrees of wealth, education and health. These 4 Very High Human Development countries were Bahrain, Japan, Singapore and US. Contrarily, 31 of the 38 remaining Very High Human Development countries have legally abolished the death penalty.
If we look at this from a more political lens, we also see that the U.S. is an outlier. Of the 26 countries that were categorized as free according to The Economist's Democracy Index only the US and Japan had performed executions in 2010 (8% of countries classified as free). This can be contrasted with the nearly 25% of countries classified as authoritarian that performed executions in 2010.
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Marc NL said on 15 Monday 2011 am31 7:15 am: The facts speak for it self. The legal fees, (appeals, lawyers, etc) that come with a death penalty is tremendously more expensive than a life sentence. It may be hard to believe for you but it is not even up for debate. A death sentence is way more expensive in the real world. We don't live in a society where we simply put a bullet through somebodies head the second he gets his verdict. |
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Within the U.S., there is a large degree of variation in the legality and use of capital punishment. For example, of the 46 executions that occurred in the U.S. in 2010, 17 were in Texas, 8 were in Ohio and 5 in Alabama meaning that these 3 states comprised 65% of the executions in the US but make up only about 13% of the population. In 16 states (plus Washington DC) the death penalty has been abolished .
Many people question whether the death penalty impacts crime rates by asking questions like "does capital punishment serve as a deterrent?" Others challenge the morality of capital punishment, especially given the concerns about false imprisonments. In this article, I am not looking to explore those questions, but rather to simply observe that the legal position of many U.S. states towards capital punishment distinguishes it from most other wealthy or democratic countries. This of course opens up more questions including fundamental ones: Why exactly do large parts of the U.S. have very different practices towards capital punishment than most of the developed/democratic world? Why are there still major racial disparities in the application of the death penalty?
More information available at
Amnesty International
Human Development Report:
Democracy Index:
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This is very useful informatio
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At least 23 countries were known to have carried out executions in 2010. Of these 23 countries, only 4 were classified as Very High Human Developmen
If we look at this from a more political lens, we also see that the U.S. is an outlier. Of the 26 countries that were categorize
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PS. Isn't Saudi Arabia a wealthy country? Did they suspend executions in 2010?
Executions
You can pretty much bet that there were executions there, though.
http://you
At the end of the day, if the people of other nations choose death penalty it's their choice.
But really AL, what about those on death row who might not be guilty and may be found innocent through DNA testing? You must have heard of the Innocence Project eh?
I'd be really upset if they sent an innocent death row inmate to Somalia, wouldn't you?
NO We have a privatized prison system, that is why we have the war on drugs, to keep those revolving doors revolving, Big money for Lawyers, Judges, prison guards and rehab centers
How can you argue against that..:)
Be afraid!!!
Be very afraid!!!
The death penalty, on the other hand, is entirely involuntar
Obviously, this is no excuse for the politician
Right you are!
Oh, right... The Tea Party Republican
http://www
and keeping someone in prison is MORE than putting them on welfare at even twice minimum wage...
Ouch! That was hard! Irony usually comes so easily to me, but that was straight out painful to write, even when I didn't mean a word of it!
Just because your neighbor has a bounced check or two, is no reason to lock him up with dangerous criminals. Besides, it's too expensive.
But thats what is happening. People we are angry at (your neighbor w/bad check) is put in jail with the rapists, etc. That's not going to solve his check problem either.
It's morally wrong.
It's doesn't deter crime.
It's more expensive.
It does for repeaters.
Frankly, I don't think a prison sentence deters robbers from robbing. Why? Because they assume they'll never get caught.
I was going to post some excerpts from sites with informatio
I will try to get some more reliable informatio
Personally
country's top academic criminolog
experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a
deterrent to murder"
http://www
A September 2000 New York Times survey found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.
FBI data shows that all 14 states without capital punishment in 2008 had homicide rates at or below the national rate.
http://www
If you look a little further you will find that China is far and away the leader in capital punishment with 2000+ for 2010 while the US with a third of the population stood at 46.
The key thing to recall is that, while it is true that China's total GDP that is about one half that of the U.S., it has a population that is 4 times that of the U.S. As a result, China's per capita income is far lower than that of the U.S. (one-tenth to one-sevent
China has a GDP per capita that is roughly one tenth that of the U.S in nominal terms and about one-sixth when adjusted for price purchase parity (adjustmen
What confuses people who don't look at this type of data regularly is the fact that China's total GDP is large (second largest in the world, though the nominal GDP is still less than half that of the U.S.) but its per capita statistics are not of a wealthy country. China has about 4 times as many people as the U.S. so the total economic size looks large even though on a per person basis they are a middle income country, not a high income country