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Questions on the Death Penalty

From Edward, Bay Village, OH:

Few death penalty proponents nowadays attempt to justify its use as a deterrent. However, one occasionally hears about someone who still holds fast to this unproven notion. The death penalty has been abolished in 13 states, but I cannot ever recall having seen a comparison of murder rates in these states versus the 37 others where capital punishment is still legal. As a physician trained in statistical analysis, I realize that other population variables (e.g., ethnic composition, poverty rates, proportion of young males, etc.) may influence murder rates on a state-by-state basis. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to do a simple comparison between those states who have abolished the death penalty and those who still retain it.

The Program to Abolish the Death Penalty responds.

Dear Edward,

Recent studies support the view that the death penalty does not have any deterrent effect. Rather, these studies found support for the theory that the death penalty has a brutalizing effect.

A report released in September 2000 by the New York Times found that states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates that states with the death penalty. The Times reports 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.

Furthermore, FBI data showed that ten of the twelve states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, whereas half of the states with capital punishment have homicide rates above. Based on the data in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, average of murder rates among death penalty states in 2001 was 5.2 per 100,000 population in contrast to 2.9 among states without death penalty.

Comparing homicide rates in the United States and Canada and Europe additionally supports the fact that the death penalty does not have any deterrent effect. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the homicide rate in the U.S. in 1999 was 5.7 per 100,000 population, while in Canada, which abolished the death penalty in 1976, the rate was only 1.8. Likewise, data released by the British Home Office reveals that the United States has a murder rate that is more that three times that of many of European countries that have banned capital punishment.

More Information:

• About the Death Penalty