Social Issues

Social Issues Paper

Georgia State University

Miriam Dunson

09/24/2013

“Nearly four centuries have passed since the first documented execution on American soil took place in 1608. Early colonial laws concerning capital punishment were borrowed from British law. Under British law, more than 50 crimes were designated as capital offenses including vagrancy, heresy, witchcraft, rape, murder, and treason. Eventually, the American colonies developed their own lists of capital crimes” (Constanzo & White, 1994).

Throughout history and especially over the past few years, the appropriateness of the death penalty as a form of punishment has been a very controversial social issue. Societies typically take a stance on one end or the other, and even in between. One article affirms “Actual opinions about capital punishment are often internally inconsistent. Persons may voice a particular view about the legitimacy of capital punishment in the abstract, but endorse an entirely different position when the issue affects them personally” ( Schadt & DeLisi ,2007). This article also concurs that alternative sentencing, such as life imprisonment without parole may change one’s stance, and on the other hand one may be in support of it, if “presented with specific information that portrays the heinousness of capital crimes”(Schadt & DeLisi ,2007).

In this social issues paper I will discuss social injustices of the death penalty by providing three reasons why the death penalty should not be permissible, I will also provide a case study, and my choice community organizing model to address the social issue. Let’s begin with the claim that the death penalty is a “social issue”, in which it is the practice of executing people convicted in our justice system. In simple terms, it is legally killing people. One author denoted, to err is human, and as individuals make mistakes there should also be consequences for those mistakes excluding the use of execution. Those who do...