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Brocquin Alexander
Ms. Oberg
English 11
20 November 2014
Death Penalty Deterring Crime
The death penalty is a very serious subject in our society because of many different
reasons such as, is it ethical/moral or is it really helping anything? Everybody has their own
opinion on whether we should have the death penalty or not because of different reasons. I
believe that the Death penalty does deter crime and it has been proven through many different
methods such as studies and statistical facts.
Many people say that the death penalty does not deter crime because these people are
criminals and don't debate whether they should do something, because if they were going to do
it, there is no way to change it. In an article produced by David B. Muhlhausen titled The Death
Penalty Deters Crime and Saves Lives he states that according to the deterrence theory,
criminals are no different from law-abiding people. Criminals rationally maximize their own self
interest (utility) subject to constraints(prices, income) that they face in the marketplace and
elsewhere. He then states that each individual, even criminals, make their decision based on the
net cost and benefits of each alternative. These men and women are humans just like everyone
else and still work the same way we all do even under extreme circumstances such as a murder.
Later in the article it also explains that executions had a highly significant negative relationship
with murder incidents which further proves that the death penalty deters crime.
Another article written by Robert Tanner, titled Studies Say Death Penalty Deters
Crime. In this article, he goes over data that states a study that was conducted in 2003 and re-

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examined in 2006 and found that each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting
a death sentence means five more homicides. This study is just more proof that the death penalty
really does deter homicides. He goes on to say that speeding up executions would strengthen the
deterrent effect. For every 2.75 years cut from time spent on death row, one murder would be
prevented, according to a 2004 study by an Emory University professor. If we speed it up then
the deterrence will have even more of an effect on the population and cut the insane cost of being
on death row. He goes on to talk about how people are just trying to find out why the certain
experiment is wrong, and not trying to find out if deterrence is actually happening or not. This
leaves these statistics as being true, and thus proving that the death penalty is actually deterring
people from murder.
The last article, written by Adam Liptak, titled Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New
Debate. In the article he takes a quote from an economist, Naci Mocan, who did a recent study
to see if there is a deterrence effect with the death penalty and he says I personally am opposed
to the death penalty...But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect. In the study that Mr.
Mocan authored he concluded that for each execution it saves five lives. Mr. Liptak goes on to
talk about how people are getting angry because there is not enough evidence to prove to them
that the death penalty is actually deterring deaths. He then states that there is not possibly enough
evidence to use, for instance, in 2003 there were more than 16,000 homicides but only 153 death
sentences and only 65 executions in the U.S.
From all these different studies and articles declaring things such as for every execution
we save five lives and that these murderers are human too, so they make their decision weighing
the pros and the cons. With all this information one can conclude that the death penalty has an
impact on crime.

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Muhlhausen, David. "The Death Penalty Deters Crime and Saves Lives." The Heritage
Foundation. The Heritage Foundation, 27 June 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/the-death-penalty-deters-crime-and-saves-lives>.

Tanner, Robbert. "Studies Say Death Penalty Deters Crime." Washington Post. The Washington
Post, 11 June 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061100406.html>.

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Liptak, Adam. "Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 17 Nov. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.