Should death penalty be allowed in our country?
Do you know that Taiwan was once blamed by France for performing execution? In 2012, Taiwan government practiced execution to six death criminals. Later, France government and Europe Union published their criticism against this execution. In recent years, human rights have become a very important issue in the world. Every country is arguing about whether the capital punishment should be kept. Until now, people still devote themselves to convince this society that death penalty should be ended and this pursuit has become a trend that we have to take it seriously. We must put the end to death penalty in order to send a message to the world that Taiwan will fight for our people’s right.
Aside from preventing terrible government, we also have to admit that the capital punishment doesn’t work as much as we supposed. People believe death penalty works fine when it comes to comforting the victims’ families and the public. However, it turned out that this is not true. An article on Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology in 2013 shows that only a little more than 30% of the victims’ family thinks that death penalty has positive effects. These people thought that justice was done and consider it a period or consolation after the assaulters were executed. However, the others think that death penalty is not the ideal solution. In fact, most victims’ family is still in sorrow after the executions. Killing the murderers only helps for a little. This penalty will not bring back the victims or delete the tragedies. Additionally, our democracy theory says that the right to life is the most important human rights. It can only be taken for the most serious, inevitable reason. Under these circumstances, it becomes doubtful that comforting the public is that kind of reason.
To start with, people call for the abolishment of death penalty because a government should not possess such power that can decide whether a citizen should be executed. For instance, the first discussion about abolishing death penalty in Taiwan occurred in 1932, when people tried to protect themselves from the brutal Japanese colonial government. 17 years later, the 228 event happened. At that time, KMT government arrested many politicians, scholars or even normal people and sentenced them to death for political reasons during. It was a nightmare in our history. These two examples prove that death penalty can be a way that a government takes to suppress the opponents. It is not safe to let our government have such great power which decides its people lives. As a result, we have to exterminate this kind of punishment to make sure that another tragedy like the 228 event will never happen again. Only by this way, our people can get rid of the unnecessary risk of becoming the victim of the government out of control.
However, people believe that this punishment is inevitable because it plays an important role in forming a better society by preventing crimes. Most people think that bad intentions will be scared away by heavy penalty. This idea has led to a myth that death penalty, as the heaviest punishment, should help decrease crime ratio effectively. But the truth is, it never really match people’s expectation. In America, the crime ratio of the states that keep death penalty is not lower than those without it from 1973 to 2005. Besides, the chance of assaulting police in the states without death penalty is lower than that of the states with death penalty in the same period. Criminals are even more willing to confess their crimes and help the police to find victims corpses and the tools. Similar situations are also observed in jails, where the prisoners are much less aggressive in the states without death penalty. This is the evidence shows that death penalty is not even close to a perfect way to reach an ideal society.
Enhancing human rights is the most important issues in our world. We have to put the end to it so that we can teach our kids the importance of human right. And the first thing to do is to abolish the capital punishment. Death penalty helps little decreasing crime ratio, and it is also far from the best to comfort people. The authority can even use it to destroy its enemy, including normal citizens. To sum up, this penalty is unnecessary and brings about potential worry. As a result, the penalty must be terminated for good. It is sure that government will figure out other ways to replace the capital punishment, and help contribute to the progress of human rights.