States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates

[mcablue]

Source: New York Times

12-14-09

The dozen states that have chosen not to enact the death penalty since the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that it was constitutionally permissible have not had higher homicide rates than states with the death penalty, government statistics and a new survey by The New York Times show.

Indeed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows, while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average. In a state-by- state analysis, The Times found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

The study by The Times also found that homicide rates had risen and fallen along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty, suggesting to many experts that the threat of the death penalty rarely deters criminals.

"It is difficult to make the case for any deterrent effect from these numbers," said Steven Messner, a criminologist at the State University of New York at Albany, who reviewed the analysis by The Times. "Whatever the factors are that affect change in homicide rates, they don't seem to operate differently based on the presence or absence of the death penalty in a state."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/national/22DEAT.html

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So now we know that 1) It's not a deterrent and 2) It costs more than life in prison.

[Soylent Brice]

1. file under DUH, and/or Norway already told us so.

[izquierdista]

2. It would be a deterrent IF

Criminals thought they would be caught. But jails and prisons are full of people who never, ever, thought they would be caught.

[TheWraith]

9. Exactly right.

There are two types of people who commit murder and get caught for it. The ones who didn't premeditate, and the ones who thought they could get away with it. Whether that belief is even remotely rational is a whole different ball of wax, but either way it doesn't enter their minds that in one state they might get 20 years and in another they might get the needle.

[blue_onyx]

3. The article had one mistake...

"I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago," said the state's governor, John Engler, a Republican. Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846 and has resisted attempts to reinstate it. "We're pretty proud of the fact that we don't have the death penalty," Governor Engler said, adding that he opposed the death penalty on moral and pragmatic grounds."

John Engler was Michigan's governor. The article quotes him as the current governor. I'm happy my state doesn't have the death penalty.

[Libertas1776]

4. If I am not mistaken,

Michigan was the first English speaking government in the world to abolish the death penalty.

[blue_onyx]

8. Yes, it was

:)

[slackmaster]

5. Just to be clear, nobody is suggesting that eliminating the DP causes homicide rates to go down

:hi:

[mcablue]

6. I don't think any opponent of the death penalty suggests that

what they suggest is that the DP is not a deterrent, as supporters often claim.

[defendandprotect]

7. Right . . . punative, punishing forms of government create crime . . .

[maryinthemorn]

10. Hope congress listens to the lower costs since they are suddenly so

concerned about lowering costs.

[AzNick]

11. delete

? clicked on a different post...

[katkat]

12. questionable analysis

Retribution is a legitimate motive for the death penalty. With that motivation, it's immaterial if it's a deterrent or not.

Perhaps the states with lower homicide rates initially started out with lesser public outcry for the death penalty.

[jmowreader]

14. Possible...

It's also possible that in the states where they don't have the DP, robbers don't kill all the witnesses to their crimes.

[liberal N proud]

13. So much for using the Death Penalty as a deterrent meme

[vadawg]

15. simply put one good thing about the DP is that it means they guy isnt going to kill again

whether thats another inmate or a guard, plus im happy with the capital murder statutes in VA that state if you kill me then the state is going to kill you, is it revenge, yes it sure as hell is and thats what i would want and my family would want as well....

[mvd]

16. That confirms what I've been saying

Our jails are more than enough to satisfy me. I'm against the death penalty because IMO it is just state-sanctioned murder.

[meow2u3]

17. Most murderers have a secret death wish

They themselves want to die, but they want to take as many as they can with them. In states with the death penalty, the murder rate is higher, and not only that, the murders are more brutal.

No one wants to be locked up in a tiny cell for the rest of his or her lives. Life imprisonment without parole is a far greater deterrent to murder than the death penalty, although people don't want to believe that. I guess they're too hellbent on revenge to see what the death penalty does to people psychologically.

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. Perhaps voters of states with higher homicide rates have demanded the death penalty