Argument for and against the Use of Death Penalty in Contemporary Amer Essay

Argument for and against the Use of Death Penalty in Contemporary America - Essay Example One of the opinions that support the implementation of the death penalty against capital offenders is its effectiveness in eliminating the criminals from the society. This effectively reduces rates of capital crimes by permanently eliminating the criminals from the targets. As opposed to imprisonment that often allows the criminals back to the society to induce high probability of further crimes, death penalty ensures complete elimination of the criminals from the society and hence reduces the rates of such crimes. The death penalty also identifies an economic advantage to the government that can then save its limited financial resources for social utilities instead of using the resources to maintain individuals who have been detrimental to the society’s utility. It, therefore, allows the government to focus on a single interest of providing the society’s utilities instead of dividing resources toward meeting utilities and maintaining individuals who have been detriment al to the government’s utility initiatives. The death penalty should also be implemented because of its retribution effect that not only punishes crimes but also derives utility from achieved justice to victims of capital crimes. Relatives and close friends of a murder victim will, for example, derive social and emotional utility from a death penalty against the murderer besides the general good of a safer society. The death penalty has also been supported for its effectiveness in discouraging criminals. This is major because people fear death and the associated pain. A person will, therefore, be more rational to refrain from a crime that attracts death penalty for fear of losing his or her own life as opposed to crimes that only attract fines or imprisonment, penalties that do not physically affect the criminals’ lives. There are however a number of augments that oppose implementation of the death penalty.