short assignment

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Research Topic Selection

The topic of capital punishment has been selected for my analysis to establish the impact of capital punishment on the occurrence of capital offenses. This will be achieved through analyzing the punishments enacted, the frequency of such punishments in the justice department, the distribution among the states. It is also a minor case scenario where capital punishment sentences are used given that most cases in the United States are punishable through imprisonment, among others. But based on the data analyzed in the statistical data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it is evident that there is a significant number of offenders who are sentenced to death.

Analyzing the topic will also help in determining the number of cases of capital offenses that are subject to capital punishment. This will be a starting point of determining the effectiveness of the justice system given that the court must implement certain procedural stages in sentencing a death sentence. Based on the United States justice department, once a person is accused or convicted of a capital offense against the United States, a separate hearing is held during which a jury will consider increasing or relieving the factors defined by the federal law. In concluding on the death sentence on a convict, the jury must determine the weight of the aggravating factors and the mitigating factors to settle on which outweighs the other. The decision criteria are that the aggregating factors must be greater than the mitigating factors. Also, the topic of capital punishment will be used to determine the rate of capital punishment cases in the 50 states in the United States as the federal law allows each jurisdiction to determine the offenses that are punishable through death sentence (https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=7066).

For instance, for some states such as Alabama, capital punishment is sentenced to a convict who is found guilty of intentional murder with 12 aggravating factors while in a state such as Arizona, treason and capital murder is what constitutes a capital offense punishable for a death sentence. Various states defer in terms of the underlying principles for committing the offense although most of them revolve around murder either first-degree murder or capital murder. Through analysis of various jurisdictions, it will be possible to determine the contributing factors and if there are any correlations between jurisdiction or county states and capital offenses. The topic will also assist in determining the cases solved in the relation of violation of federal capital offenses which defer from those of individual jurisdiction such as civil rights offenses resulting in death. The topic will also assist in determining whether there was the extreme use of power in determining the offenses punishable through the sentence based on the frequency of the capital punishments in the jurisdiction.

Another reason for picking the topic is to determine the methods used in the execution of the people charged guilty of the capital offenses such as lethal injection where three drugs are combined: pancuronium bromide which paralyzes the muscles and the respiratory system, potassium chloride that is responsible for stopping the heart and midazolam which is used for sedation. This method has been popular among capital punishment over the years. Other methods that will be investigated are electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and nitrogen hypoxia. Through the analysis of the different methods, it is possible to determine if the jurisdictions comply with the laws that are established with capital punishment. For instance, federal sentences on capital punishment are under 28 C.F.R Part 26. The other reason why the topic has been used is to determine the developments in capital punishment in terms of the number of cases that have been registered and the trend over the years to determine the changes that have occurred hence determine the contributing factors to the change (https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cp18st.pdf).

Based on the variables used in the research topic and the background data, the research questions can be derived from the dependent and independent variables. The independent variables, in this case, are capital punishment which will be analyzed in three aspects in this study: distribution, causes, and methods. Concerning distribution, the aim is to determine how capital punishment is distributed among various states in the United States with the laws or basis of execution held constant across the states. The second aspect of the study focuses on determining the causes of capital punishment such as the capital offenses committed. This is aimed at establishing the common factor among the states which are used as the benchmark for capital punishments. The third element is the methods used in capital punishment and the impact they have on the recurrence of capital offenses which aim at determining whether the methods used discourage other people from committing similar offenses. This will be achieved through a comparative analysis between the methods used and the cases reported in the consecutive years. In considerations of the three factors analyzed in the text, the following question will be used in the study.

Hypothesis

In determining the theory behind capital punishment and capital offenses as well as establishing the relationship between the two elements, a hypothesis can be developed which has two hypotheses: a null hypothesis and an alternate hypothesis will be tested.

Null hypothesis: Capital punishments does not impact the occurrence of capital offenses in the United States of America

Alternate hypothesis: Capital punishments have an impact on the occurrence of capital offenses in the United States of America.

The decision criteria to either confirm the theory will involve either rejecting or accepting the null hypothesis and the alternate hypothesis. If the results from the survey prove that there is a correlation between capital punishment and the occurrence of capital offenses, the null hypothesis will be rejected which means supporting the alternate hypothesis. On the contrary, if the results and interpretations prove there is no correlation between the capital offenses and the occurrence of capital offenses, the null hypothesis will be accepted which means rejecting the alternate hypothesis.

Reference

Bureau of justice statistics (n.d.). https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dca