quote:

Originally posted by C L Wilkins:
The death penalty is a punishment, it is not a deterrent although some folks would have you believe otherwise.

Executed criminals are deterred permanently from committing any additional crimes.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

Yes, Specific deterrence, of course.

I guess what I'm thinking of is a different culture. A culture where a young man would never even think about joining a gang or committing a heinous crime.

The rate of violent crime used to be far less than what it is today, particularly in urban neighborhoods.

Mentors are often promoted as a way of promoting a positive behavior. Well removing murderers and violent criminals is removing those sort of mentors from society.

They become forgotten “heroes”. Something like “I went to school with a guy, big Mike we called him, beat some gal to death in a car jacking 35 years ago. Hung him, hung a bunch of thugs back in the day, that thug life has faded away now…” That’s my normal brain working, not sure what thug brain thinks. Like pro athletes they just aren’t like us.

Do not know if it might be true but with the number of monsters that do multiple murders, whether all at once or over a period of time, I believe it may be. To me it seems once an individual takes the first step to kill it may be easier to repeat. If that is the case, doing it again is more likely. Not necessarily so much in the case of those that get a thrill or pleasure from it but just the fact they feel it is not as bad as they thought it might be. In that case, execution would certainly prevent repeating the act. I don't know if any psychiatrist has done a study regarding this becoming easier but it would be an valuable study to see if there is a correlation.