Preventive Effect of Capital Punishment (Death Penalty) to Delinquents
Preventive Effect of Capital Punishment (Death Penalty) to Delinquents

Summary/Abstract: Especially interesting issue when performing an analysis of the relationship between criminal law and the system of moral values is the question of the death penalty, which in recent decades has been very popular as a subject of broad discussions. The death penalty (poena capitalis) is actually a deprivation of life of the convicted perpetrator of crime. You must first ask the fundamental question: who has the right to punish, and what is the source of that right (ius puniendi)? The right to life is an inalienable human right and it coincides with the chance that a man is changing and improving. Retribution and prevention determine the meaning and function of criminal law as a whole, including its system of sanctions, in which penalties play the main role. No other legislation, which in the register of sanctions has the death penalty, can deny the revenge as a motive for punishment and intimidation as a preventative reason for its existence. Society, with the death penalty, tries to defend itself from dangerous offenders, because otherwise it can not preserve its values and legal norms. The job of the criminal law and punishment is that future inmates do not do new crimes, while others do not follow the example of the delinquent behavior. There are more arguments “for” and “against” the existence of the death penalty in law. Arguments “for” are: elimination and reduction of crime; death penalty deters citizens from crime; death penalty provides satisfaction for the family of the victims; the killer deserves proportionate punishment (some crimes are so horrible that adequate punishment is only execution); only the death penalty definitely removes dangerous criminals off the streets. Arguments against are: there is no evidence that the death penalty actually deters citizens from crime; the death penalty is irreversible, especially in cases where the convicted person is later proved innocent; the death penalty is unfairly implemented; there are better ways of punishment and prevention.

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