crime and punishment

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Capital Punishment by definition is “a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime”. When looking at the death penalty system in action, we can clearly see that the only purpose it serves is retribution or revenge; it is seriously flawed in application. The flaw that is presented is that there is a serious and continuing risk of executing innocent people. And, it costs much more than life in prison. If we look at the statistics, about 130 people wrongfully convicted people were sentenced to death and were lucky to be exonerated and released, eventually in past few years. DNA, which is available in less than 10% of all homicides, can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. If someone is convicted and later found innocent you can release him from prison, but obviously not from the grave. Speeding up the death penalty process has been something that people believe will be beneficial, but there are problems and circumstances with speeding up the process. About 40% of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade and speeding up the process will only increase the risk of executing innocent people. Also, the death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder, which is ultimately the goal. There is no reliable study that shows the death penalty scaring others and them not committing serious crimes. If someone is going to kill, they are going to kill, death penalty or not because that is there motive and it happens more often than we think. Also, I found that homicide rates are actually higher in states and regions that have Capital Punishment compared to states that don’t.
In recent studies, it shows that life without parole, on the books in 48 states, has a bigger impact on preventing reoffending. Life without parole also costs less than the death penalty. The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison, mostly because of the upfront costs of the legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people. It is costing the people more money to kill a person than to keep them in prison for life. It is understandable that a person convicted of murder is wrong in many more ways than one and is going to jail for killing which we consider the worst of all crimes, yet we are willing to do the same thing and in a sense play God.
Crime and punishment are two topics that are dealt with in many different ways, in diverse states, as well as countries. If we look at countries, every country uses prison sentences as the consequence for serious crimes, such as robbery or murder. However, the traditional ways of dealing with crime are not always the best ways to deal with it. There may be other approaches, such as treatment or education programs, that could be more effective. The two main reasons for this would be that punishment does not reform criminals, and it does not deal with the real causes of crime.
Overall, the main goal of punishment should be to reduce crime and to make people less likely to commit these crimes again. In addition to putting a stop to the crime sprees, it also needs to change the behavior of the criminals in order for them to be safe members of society. The way we punish criminals these days does not have a positive effect at all. In some cases locking a prisoner away is a good idea and a safe one at that, but sometimes, depending on the crime, locking criminals away only makes them worse. In most countries, there are a lot of repeat offenders. I think that this is because once they get out of prison, they are likely to commit crimes and when they are in an out of prisons, they have to experience dangerous conditions mixed with other criminals.
To reduce crime in an effective way, we have to deal with the real causes, not just punish people who break the law. There have been studies that have shown several cases where people commit crimes because of poverty. The poor neighborhoods of big cities are always where most serious crime happens and are usually home to gangs, drugs, and violence. More crime occurs because of these factors in these neighborhoods and instead of drug users getting help, or any criminal of these factors receiving any kind of help to become better people, we punish them solely, which is not reducing crime.
Rather than just prison sentences, criminals need education and treatment as we. They could be educated and learn new job skills as well as get the psychiatric and medical help they need, whether they are battling addiction or a mental illness. This would teach them ways of making a living instead of getting involved in crime all over gain. This kind of system would prepare people for a better life after prison if they have a chance to get out. It’s like the officials would be focusing on the actual causes of the crime and finding ways to reduce a reoccurrence. Although it is very different from the system of punishment that we are used to, this kind of system would be more effective than just imprisonment alone. Although it does seem unfair to help criminals rather than only punishing them, treatment and education is a better additional solution that benefits everyone by reducing crime.