There is an ongoing debate on the use of capital punishment. Discuss Essay

There is an ongoing debate on the use of capital punishment. Discuss the social, moral and historical aspects of this controversial topic - Essay Example The reason that capital punishment represents the social problem is due to the fact that it is both something that is potentially morally wrong and a reaction to crime that has statistically been proven to be ineffective in reducing criminal activity with regards to the specific crimes that incurred the death penalty. As a function of this two-pronged approach, the following analysis will seek to provide the reader with a more profound understanding with regards to the determinants of morality and efficacy that the death penalty ultimately portends. It is the hope of this author that such an analysis will be useful in seeking to understand some of the sociological changes with respect to the death penalty which had been instituted within the past several decades around the globe. Firstly, activists that oppose the death penalty promote the understanding that the death penalty is merely a form of empty retribution. What is meant by this is the fact that compelling statistics, compiled by a litany of different researchers, indicate that the death penalty is entirely ineffective with regards to deterring capital crime (Worthen et al., 2014). An analysis of states within the United States that employ the death penalty as compared to those that do not, do not exhibit a market differentiation between the overall level and numbers of these crimes committed. On the other hand, activists on the far right of the political spectrum oftentimes promote the belief that the death penalty is morally commanded and should be employed as a means of providing a degree of restitution and closure to the family members who have had others taken from them in such gruesome a manner (Asai & Maki, 2011). Although there is a degree of psychological evidence that closure can be achieved through the application of the death penalty, such a construct does not justify the taking of life; at least in the view of this author