Pro-Death Persuasive Essay

Pro-Death Penalty Equals Life for Society

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COM 120 Effective Persuasive Writing

Pro-Death Penalty Equals Life for Society

Should society be forced to hide behind locked doors? Wouldn’t the world be a great place if crime rates were diminishing rather than inclining? How… how could the dream of safer streets and happier homes ever come to be? There is one thing that may be able to help, the death penalty. The death penalty could be the answer that society has been looking for. The enforcement of stricter capital punishment could cleanse society’s streets, hearts, and minds of the filth and hardships forced upon it by criminals.

A very effective way of lowering the crime rate is with the deterrence of potential criminals. The death penalty, although seen as extreme by some, will hinder future crimes by taking something valuable away from offenders. What is most valuable to a criminal, the spoils of their actions or the life that allows them the opportunity to commit crimes? Obviously, most criminals value their own lives above everything else. However, would using their lives as a bargaining chip be enough to deter potential criminals from committing crimes? Is the death penalty a proven method of determent and would it actually help society?

…Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence. States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use the death penalty… Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death more than...