In 1994, 80 Percent of the U

Essay

In 1994, 80 percent of the U.S. public supported capital punishment. In 2013, 63 percent of Americans were in favor of the death penalty. A survey of police officers found that 94 percent favored the death penalty, with 96 percent of the police giving (as the primary reason) that it removed a dangerous person from the population. Another reason given was that capital punishment serves as a powerful deterrent to murder. In 2010, 88 percent of the country's top academic criminological societies rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. Do these statistics strongly support the argument that capital punishment is inappropriate in the United States today? Can you suggest an alternate explanation for these statistics?