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The Death Penalty: An Appropriate Punishment Essay examples

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Capital punishment has been a punitive consequence of multiple societies in many different countries over the years. The death penalty has been witnessed in many different forms, depending on the society or culture. It is viewed as an act of justice due to its deeply embedded historical tradition. Over the centuries, many cultures have used capital punishment because it ensures the safety of society. Criminals continue to use violence as their way of solving a problem. Capital punishment deters crime rates more than anything else. The death penalty offers justice with historical tradition. According to Roger Smith, societies use capital punishment as a consequence for numerous crimes. “The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi states death as the …show more content…

As Smith mentions in “Prisoners on Death Row,” in the west, they were sure to make the executions very public. The reason for this is because they used these public executions as a scare tactic. Some cultures used extreme forms of execution. Ancient Rome used treatment like: throwing criminals from cliffs, torturing criminals to death, feeding them to wild animals and crucifying them. As years passed, the executions became more heinous. In the Middle Ages, officials executed criminals in the following ways: public drowning, pulling their bodies apart, and burning them alive. Public executions continued to occur as the years progressed. During this time, in England and America, public hangings were the most common form of public death. And during the French revolution the guillotine was infamous for thousands of beheadings (Smith 17).
In court systems today, courts give the same type of punishment for various crimes. Differing crimes call for differing punishments. For example, when a child spills milk on the floor, an appropriate punishment dispensed by the parents would be to have the child clean up his or her mess. The child then learns consequences for misdeeds because he or she has to correct the problem. The problem in current society is the laws are too lenient and fail to appropriately punish offenders. Court systems today become too enmeshed in punishments for felony charges and disregard enforcing appropriate punishments for misdemeanors.

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