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Example research essay topic: Capital Punishment Bad Policy - 1,222 words

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Is capital punishment bad policy? This is a question that can not be answered as easily as one may think. More than often the answer to this question is simplified into catch phrases or simplistic arguments. To truly understand this question one must evaluate both sides of the argument because people on both sides of this issue often ignore key elements and variables.

When evaluating these arguments, although everyone has an opinion, one must try to be as objective as we can. One must examine the empirical support for these arguments and see how valid and comprehensive the evidence may be. Only after an extensive evaluation of arguments made by both sides, can one truly have a grasp on this controversial and very complicated issue. The issue of capital punishment is composed of a couple main elements that can be separate issues in themselves. These elements are deterrence, cost of execution compared to imprisonment, moral and ethical issues, and discrimination.

Only after an extensive evaluation of arguments made by both sides and recognition of the key elements of capital punishment, can one truly have a grasp on this controversial and very complicated issue. In this paper two articles about capital punishment from the book Taking Sides, edited and selected by Richard C. Monk, will be evaluated. This first article to be evaluated is "Miscarriage of Justice: Why the Death Penalty Doesn't Work" by David Von Drehle.

In this article the author argues against the death penalty. The second article to be evaluated is "The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense" by Ernest van den Haag. In this article the author argues for the death penalty. Other sources will also be used and evaluated throughout the paper in order to present a more comprehensive evaluation. Taking Sides: Yes (Is Capital Punishment Bad Policy? ) David Von Drehle believes that capital punishment is bad policy. To demonstrate his point he goes through the history of capital punishment in America.

Although it is important to know the history and why our country practices it, I don't think it serves as a good enough argument against the death penalty. So instead of evaluating this part of the article I will instead pull out Von Drehle's major arguments and evaluate each one of them. One of the first arguments the Von Drehle makes is that carrying out an execution is far more expensive than imprisoning someone for life. The cost of the actual execution isn't what makes it more expensive; it is actually the cost of all of the appeals and other legal proceedings.

It takes a lot of time in court in order to execute someone; this is where the expensive cost comes in. Personally I think this is the weakest argument that can be made against the death penalty. For one thing, the cost of imprisoning someone, in these studies, is usually only determined by only looking at the actual cost of incarceration. They may not take into account the cost of appeals that occur when imprisoning a murder for life.

Also I think this gives proponents of death penalty even more reason to try to restrict due process and the number of appeals given to death row inmates. I am sure that if it was up to certain conservative proponents of the death penalty, there would be very few appeals in death penalty cases. This would definitely cut the cost dramatically. I have even heard arguments to throw away due process in certain murder cases. This would really cut the cost to execute someone.

All we would have to do is catch the suspected murder, collect some kind of evidence and execute them. That would surely make executing someone much cheaper than incarcerating him or her. To me this kind of argument is absolutely ridiculous and un-American. Von Drehle's weak argument about the cost of execution makes the ridiculous argument of doing away with due process stronger.

Another argument that Von Drehle makes is that capital punishment is discriminatory. This argument is weak because the evidence to support this argument seems to be weak. It is true that Blacks and Hispanics are executed much more frequently than whites however it is not clear whether this is because they are discriminated against or if they are actually guilty for more serious murders. There is more evidence to support argument that the justice system discriminates with regard to the murder victims more often than murderers. A person who murders a white person is more likely to receive the death penalty than a person who murders a Black or Hispanic person. I do agree, however, that the justice system does discriminate against minorities on a lower level and they are more likely to develop a past record than a white person would be.

This may cause minorities to be executed disproportionally due to their past records which were developed in a discriminatory way. Von Drehle really doesn't really go into these arguments. Also, even if the death penalty is discriminatory, I don't think that would be a good argument to support getting rid of it. That would just be an argument to fix the way in which the death penalty is administered.

The discrimination argument doesn't seem to convince people that capital punishment is bad policy. A third argument made by Von Drehle is that the death penalty is imposed arbitrarily and it rarely gets carried out. Well this is the third bad argument he makes. Again just because there is something wrong with the way that the death penalty is imposed, doesn't mean it should be abandoned all together. Proponents of capital punishment would easily dispute this argument by saying the death penalty should be given on a more regular basis in order to make it effectively deterrent. Although this argument is totally off, it still sounds a lot better than Von Drehle's does.

Overall I think Von Drehle's makes a very weak argument against the death penalty. Although he points out problems with it, he never really goes into why capital punishment is a bad policy. He doesn't really go into the issue of deterrence, which can be a very effective argument against the death penalty. He also doesn't address a lot of counter arguments that could be made to almost all of the issues he brings up. Von Drehle's article is a bad representation of this side of the issue. Taking Sides: (Is Capital Punishment Bad Policy? ) Ernest van den Haag argues that capital punishment is not a bad policy.

He carefully argues five main points to explain his position. Unlike Von Drehle, he includes in his arguments a lot of counter arguments to his position and exams why they are flawed. The first main point that he makes is about distribution. This mainly discusses the issue of discrimination when the death penalty is imposed.

The first thing he does is question why people who think capital punishment is immoral concentrate on the issue of discrimination. If no distribution of the death penalty is moral then why would even bring up the issue of discrimination. He goes on to say that mal distribution is no more common in capital punishment then it is in any other punishment. He then points out that there is no discrimination if the people being executed are in fact guilty...


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Research essay sample on Capital Punishment Bad Policy

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