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Essay Subject: Examines history & evolution of punishment in U.S. prisons & its effectiveness in deterring crime.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines history & evolution of punishment in U.S. prisons & its effectiveness in deterring crime. Paper Introduction: In recent years, society has become more fearful of crime and more concerned that the criminal justice system does not deter violent crime as it should. Fear of crime is a driving force in elections and political battles. The desire of the people for tougher sentences can run afoul of the Constitution and its prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, among other provisions. The issue of cruel and unusual punishment is often argued with reference to the death penalty, but it has applications in other punitive situations. The concept of what does and does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment has evolved in decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court over the years, and the present state of the issue has developed from earlier views and cases. Yet, of equal importance is the issue of whether tougher punishment serves its intended purpose and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. has produced no evidence that capital punishment reduces the rate of murder or other violent crimes (Horgan 17). works CitedGibbs, Margaret R. As noted, the issue has been raised in death penalty cases, thoughthe Supreme Court has determined that the death penalty as such is neithercruel nor unusual. Hall writes, The Court's criterion seems to have been whether a punishment would have been considered cruel and unusual in 1791, when the Bill of Rights was ratified (Hall 2 8). Katz finds thatthe criminal experiences in the moment of committing the crime "adistinctive constraint or seductive appeal that he did not sense a littlewhile before in a substantially similar place" (Katz 4). The theory of Wilson and Herrnstein sees crime as a "rational choice"made by the criminal, who weighs the pros and cons of his or her actionsbefore undertaking them, considering the costs an benefits and deciding howto behave on the basis of which is greater. Bethesda, Maryland: National Press, 199 .Sykes, Gresham M. The public's fear of crime has caused politicians to take one of twoapproaches. During that time, the Supreme Court concededthat torture and punitive "atrocities"--such as burning at the stake,crucifixion, or breaking on the wheel--would be defined as cruel andunusual, as in Wilkerson v. "William J. Nathanson states, One of the most powerful arguments made by death penalty supporters is based on the idea that the death penalty is a uniquely effective deterrent against murder (Nathanson 15).Nathanson says most people begin with the confident belief that the ideathat the death penalty is a deterrent to murder is a self-evidentproposition, but he shows through the use of statistics that this is notthe case More than a century of research in the U.S. Of more importance is Nathanson's next point--deterrence, one of themore hotly argued issues surrounding the death penalty. The more important point is that there is a crucial difference between there being no evidence that two things are correlated and there being evidence that two things are not correlated. Wilson and Herrnstein's view of crime as a rational choice based ongains and losses was much criticized. Hall notes that for the first century afterthe adoption of Article VIII, the question of cruel and unusual punishmentwas a completely dead issue. In 191 , the Supreme Court invalidated a territorial statute derivedfrom Spanish law that imposed cadena temporal, meaning twelve to twentyyears chained in prison, for knowingly entering a false statement in thepublic record (Weems v. One argument raised by both sides in the death penalty argument asa justification for their position is the need for there to be a respectfor life in society. Nathanson sees the imposition of the death penalty asa statement on the part of society that life is not precious and that somelives are simply not worthy saving. The argument that there is noevidence that the death penalty deters, however, is false, but even ifthere were no such proof, it does not follow that the opposite has beenproven: But here let us assume, for argument's sake, that there was no such evidence. The theorists argued thatcrime was a rational choice, a preferred course of action developed througha consideration of the costs and benefits: The important thing, they noted, is to specify how the pains and losses are perceived by the individual, how they are weighed and combined, how they are discounted depending on whether they are experienced immediately or in the future, and how these aspects of choice are related to the individual's physical, intellectual, and social attributes (Sykes and Cullen 341). Only one other Justice has ever agreedon this point, and that was Thurgood Marshall. and other countries. Other forms of punishment thatwere actually authorized by the state--such as hanging, shooting, andelectrocution--were not, as seen in In re Kemmler in 189 . Criminology (2nd edition). Georgia), it was because of theway capital punishment laws were written rather than because the Court sawanything cruel or unusual in capital punishment itself (Hall 125). It is assumed that it does, sincethis is the rationale for public cries to tougher sentencing, and anexamination of the literature will illuminate whether there is support forthis position or not. United States). The death penalty for rapewas held to be cruel and unusual in 1977 (Coker v. An Eye for an Eye? Yet, of equal importance is theissue of whether tougher punishment serves its intended purpose andcontributes to a reduction in crime. JusticeBrennan believed that capital punishment was cruel and unusual, and hehoped that this idea would prevail. The idea that the tendency to commit crime can be related to a ratioof net rewards of crime to the net rewards of noncrime, as expressed in thetheory offered by Wilson and Herrnstein, offers a type of cost-benefitanalysis of crime that has long been intuitive in the population and thatis inherent in the view that harsher punishments reduce crime. Supreme Court over the years, and the present state of the issue hasdeveloped from earlier views and cases. The Michigan SupremeCourt ruled in a case that a life sentence without possibility of parolefor possession of cocaine violated the state's constitutional ban on cruelor unusual punishment (Hansen 25). Michigan wentto the U.S. They are thus inconsistent with the fundamental premise of the (cruel and unusual punishments) clause that even the vilest criminal remains a human being possessed of common human dignity. The latter means that we have good evidence that the two things are not related; the former means simply that we have no evidence on either side of the case (Goldberg 42). As Hanke and Baetjerwrite, "To reduce crime now, we must change the incentives faced bypotential criminals" (Hanke and Baetjer 48). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992."Supreme Court Ruling Changes the Standard on Inmate Abuse." Corrections Today (April 1992), 195.Whiteley, Diane. We devisepunishments which are intended to convince the criminal--both the one beingpunished and any future, budding criminals who may be watching--that "crimedoes not pay" because part of the cost of doing business is to spend largeamounts of time in jail. . Seductions of Crime;: Moral and Sensual Attractions in Doing Evil. Katz discusses theissue of motivation and says that "something causally essential happens inthe very moments in which a crime is committed" (Katz 4). (O'Brien 6 ). Georgia) and similarlyfor kidnaping that same year (Eberheart v. The Court rejected thedeath penalty in 1972 because it was applied in a "wanton and freakishmanner." Brennan concurred but went further, holding that it was alsocruel and unusual in its infliction of acute pain and suffering: The true significance of these punishments is that they treat members of the human race as nonhumans, as objects to be toyed with and discarded. The desire of the people for tougher sentences can run afoul ofthe Constitution and its prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment,among other provisions. Supporters of this ruling find that itshows a proper deference to state legislatures, which they see as beingbetter able to fulfill the will of the people and also better able todecide what is cruel and unusual (at least for that state)(Gibbs 955-978). . . New York: Basic Books, 1988.Nathanson, Stephen. Utah in 1879. They donot balance the competing interests of costs and benefits to arrive at adecision, however, but instead gravitate instinctively to behavior whichfulfills a psychological need within them. The penalty was seen as excessiveand disproportionate to the crime, but the Court based this on a narrowhistoric reading of the Eighth Amendment without any clear indication ofthe criteria by which the ruling was developed. That is, wetend to accept the idea that criminals will commit crimes as long as itpays to do so but that they will not commit crimes when the costs becometoo high. Brennan Jr." 8 Men and a Lady: Profiles of the Justices of the Supreme Court. Harsher penalties have an appeal to a fearful populace but may notbe as effective as many believe. The firsttime the Court applied the clause to invalidate a state law was when itstruck down imprisonment for the status offense of narcotics addiction(Robinson v. Proponents ofcapital punishment like to point out that even if the death penalty doesnot deter future murderers from killing, it deters the person executed fromdoing so. The issue of cruel and unusual punishment is oftenargued with reference to the death penalty, but it has applications inother punitive situations. The fulfillment of this need isso strong that any cost which may occur, including punishment, is notstrong enough to overcome the psychological benefit. It can and should affirm the community's values to all (Whiteley 42).Whether it actually manages to reduce crime, however, is open to debate.Statistical evidence can be used to support either side. Kermit L. Dulles). "Doing Time Chills Crime." The World & I (March 1, 1997), 48.Hansen, Mark. "Eighth Amendment--Narrow Proportionality Requirement Preserves Deference to Legislative Judgment." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (Winter 1992), 955-978.Goldberg, Steven. Yet, this may not be accurate of harsher and longer sentencesshort of death. The purpose of punishment is to assert community values and deterfuture crime: From the community's perspective as a stakeholder, the sentence may communicate specific and general deterrence and authoritative disavowal of the crime to all the audiences for the communication. After all, this is the basis of our penal system, or at lastthat element of it dedicated to the concept of deterrent. and Francis T. Even if it is assumed that capital punishment is not too harsh apenalty for certain crimes, the question remains whether it has a positiveeffect. In recent years, society has become more fearful of crime and moreconcerned that the criminal justice system does not deter violent crime asit should. California, 1962)(Hall 2 9). Boston: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987.O'Brien, Tim. Cullen. One side thinks that respect for life forbids the use of the death penalty, while the other believes that respect for life requires it (Nathanson 1).Nathanson thus abandons this as a valuable argument because it can beargued either way with validity. Yet,Katz does see that the criminal engages in criminal behavior because he orshe gets more out of it than they put in, at least in their view. "The Victim and the Justification of Punishment." Criminal Justice Ethics 17 (June 22, 1998), 42. The concept of what does and does notconstitute cruel and unusual punishment has evolved in decisions by theU.S. He knows that the opposition holdsthat society asserts a respect for life by having the death penalty, thusshowing a respect for the life of the victim and demonstrating thatdisrespect of life by a criminal will be met with all the power of thestate: So both sides seek to show their respect for life, but they differ about the appropriate way of doing so. When the death penalty was eliminated for a time by aSupreme Court decision in 1972 (Furman v. This case of Harmelin v. The incentivists claim that more severe punishments reducecrime rates, while the structuralists say that the solution to crime liesin criminal rehabilitation and in the amelioration of the root cause ofcrime, in the breakdown in moral standards and civility in America. Supreme Court, which decided that the sentence in question didnot violate the Eighth Amendment. "Michigan Drug Law Struck Down." ABA Journal (September 1992), 25.Horgan, John. "The Death Penalty: Most Americans Favor It, but What Purpose Does It Serve?" Scientific American (July 199 ), 17-22.Katz, Jack. Georgia), in both cases becauseit was seen as "grossly disproportionate to the offense." The Court ruledin 1958 that expatriation was also cruel and unusual because it was adenial of the defendant's right to have rights (Trop v. Fear of crime is a driving force in elections and politicalbattles. . New York: Oxford, 1992.Hanke, Steve H. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Katz would perhaps argue with thetypes of variables Wilson and Herrnstein examine in terms of what thecriminal uses as criteria for determining what sort of behavior to engagein, and in particular Katz would not see crime as a matter of rationalchoice in the way that Wilson and Herrnstein develop the concept. There is some evidence that long sentences are effectivewhen they keep criminals incarcerated beyond the age that most criminalscontinue to ply their trade, but this would not show any deterrence ofothers. Wilsonand Herrnstein recently offered evidence for their structuralist positionthat getting tough on crime works and works rapidly. In a decision in 1992, the Supreme Courtdecided that abuse suffered by inmates can constitute cruel and unusualpunishment even if the injuries sustained are not serious ("Supreme CourtRuling Changes the Standard on Inmate Abuse" 195). The issue is not new, and Americans have answered the question ofwhether harsh punishments curtail crime differently at different times inAmerican history. Unfortunately, statistics can be argued either way and can be shapedto prove or disprove nearly anything. "So What If the Death Penalty Deters?" National Review (June 3 , 1989), 42-43.Hall, Kermit L.(ed.). Specific cases can create special circumstances which raise the issueof cruel and unusual punishment. and Howard Baetjer. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.