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Annotated Outline Assignment
Criminal Justice Research and Writing (Liberty
University)
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Hannah Santiago
CJUS 230
Professor DeBoer
July 11, 2022
Research Paper: Annotated Outline Assignment
Capital Punishment
I. Introduction
Thesis Statement
. Capital punishment violates human rights, it may be applied unfairly, and it reinforces
violence in society; therefore, it should not be considered by governments as a viable solution
for combating crime.
1. Background information: The lack of programs and the consequent overcrowding of prisons
can influence citizens to consider death penalty as a solution to tackle delinquency.
Although, numerous countries have abolished it since it no longer faces the current crime
situation
II. Claims in support of capital punishment.
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A. Incarceration is designed to punish criminals, deter crime, and to rehabilitate offenders.
Sadly, this is usually not always the case.
1. Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's prisons reports that: within three
years of their release, 67% of former prisoners were rearrested and 52% of former
prisoners were re-incarcerated (Dickson, 2014)
2. Due to the high rate of recidivism calls our prison system's ability to rehabilitate
into question; showing that prisons are not doing enough to rehabilitate at all.
B. "Retributive justice is a system by which offenders are punished in proportion to
the moral magnitude of their intentionally committed harms" (Carlsmith & Darley; 2008).
1. The theory of "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" comes from the book of Exodus.
This can be understood as if a person commits a crime, that they should then receive
punishment or treatment that reflects how they affected the victim.
2. Capital punishment may provide the families/communities a sense of closure and
a sense that justice has been served.
III. Opposing claims of capital punishment
A. Capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to crime. According to 88 percent of
the nation's leading criminologist believe that capital punishment in fact is not a
deterrence for crimes, and 78 percent of those surveyed said that having the death
penalty in a state does not lower the murder rate. (M. Radelet & T. Lacock, 2009).
1. In 2007, murder rates in states that still had the death penalty exceeded those in
states that have abolished it by no less than 42 percent. More than eighteen percent
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of surveyed experts went even further and actually expressed the belief that the
death penalty leads to a higher rate of murders, something they refer to as
"brutalization hypothesis". (amnestyusa.org)
B. Rehabilitation punishment is the ideology that an adult criminal can be
successfully rehabilitated and upon successful rehabilitation of society's criminals.
1. The argument for rehabilitation is that it allows countless benefits to the adult
inmate as well as the community to reform, and once all steps are completed, they
will be re-integration into society. Some of the different kinds of rehabilitation
prisons offer are: Education Rehabilitation, Employment Rehabilitation,
Counseling Rehabilitation, Wellness Rehabilitation and Community Rehabilitation.
IV. Conclusion Paragraph.
In conclusion, I believe the death penalty is morally righteous to a certain extent. When a violent
criminal commits a capital crime, they should endure a punishment which equals the crime
committed, and capital punishment is considered the worst punishment possible. Since capital
punishment does not only remove a criminal's physical freedom by imprisoning them, but it
removes their psychological freedom by taking away their choice to live.
References:
Authors M. Radelet & T. Lacock, "Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of
Leading Criminologists" 2009
M. Carlsmith, Kevin & M. Darley, John. (2008). Psychological Aspects of Retributive Justice.
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 40. 193-236. 10.1016/S0065-2601(07)00004-4.
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A Clear Scientific Consensus that the Death Penalty does NOT Deter - Amnesty International
USA. (2009, June 18). Retrieved from https://www.amnestyusa.org/a-clear-scientific-consensus-
that-the-death-penalty-does-not-deter/
5 Rewarding Types of Rehabilitation for Inmates. (2017, December 27). Retrieved
from https://web.connectnetwork.com/rehabilitation-for-inmates/
Dickson, C. (2014, April 22). America's Recidivism Nightmare. Retrieved from
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/22/america-s-recidivism-nightmare.html
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Capital Punishment in the United States, 2016 - Statistical Brief. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6246
