| Product: |
Capital punishment |
| Date: |
08/07/07 (246 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Can bring order
Disadvantages: Can be unnecerssary
What some people consider capital punishment seems to vary significantly. I believe that capital punishment is a physically harming a person for cmmititng an offence be this criminal, or otherwise. Under that logic, a teacher beating a boy in school, as was common many years ago, counts as capital punishment. So is all capital punishment wrong? Is any form wrong even up to the death penalty?
- The Whip -
The whip has been used as punishment in a variety of different settings. These span from the military beating troops, or flogging them, to use in schools. The basic idea is to cause as much pain as possible, with a number of hits to the back, depending on the offence. In the army this varied from a single whip, to several whips for major offences such as stealing.The obvious question is why? Well simply because it works. If a member of the armed forces knew he would face extreme pain for an offence, then he is far less likely ot do it in the first place. People have claimed this is inhumane and unfair, but the simple truth is if they have commited an offence they need to punished for it ad you can't exactly put a soldier in detention for a day can you. The use in schools, however, is quite a different matter. The whip was not as common in the past in schools, most teachers prefered the cane simply because it was easier to use, but the basic principle is still the same. The child does something wrong and gets punished for it. This strategy is highly effective in scaring children into behaving, but is seem as cruel in todays society. This means that now teachers can not practise any form of physical punishment on any of their pupils. Most would say this is a good thing, but I ask is it really that good. The misbehaviour of children in the classroom is bringing teachers to breaking point as they no longer can use any form of punishment that has great affect. Children know they can misbehave and so they do so, while the teacher is effectively powerless to intervene. This affects whole classes of children as the children who refuse to behave, ruin their learning while the teacher trys, and fails, to do something about them. So Is it not better to simply bring back the cane for major offences to keep those children who refuse to behave in line?
- Torture -
This is a contraversial topic. Most people believe torture is cruel and unnecessary. I have to agree it does seem to have no benefit what so ever to the one being tortured or the torturer. Toture is usually used to get a person to confess to a crime they are thought to have commited. The torture can continue several months, whether this is physical beating; not allowing a prisoner to sleep; using constant white noise or poisoning, until the person confesses. Now there is an obvious flaw with this. If you tell a victim the torture will not stop until they confess then sooner or later they will confess, regardless of whether they commited the crime or not. This makes torture a pointless practise of little or no value and one that is barbaric and unnecersarry.
- The Death Penalty -
Whenever the death penalty is mentioned people seem to immediately think of the electric chair. This thought is a bit outdated now, as many countries that practise it have changed their method. A common method now is lethal injection. This is painless and quick with the least graphic. Other less humane favourites are: the electric hair, firing squad, stoning, hanging and just a beating with sticks. They are used in different situations depending on the person being executed, and the crime they have commited. For example in some asian and african countries stoning are common. The criminal, usually found guilty of a severe offence such as murder of a person of high rank, is tied to a pole in a town square and is bombarded with stones from local towns people until eventually they die. This is humiliating and incredibly painful, and is designed to scare other people from commiting similar offences. Now that form of execution is seen by all to be barbaric and cruel and I would have to say I agree, but I do think other methods such as lethal injection aren't as bad. If a person is facing a life in prison at tax payers expense is it not better to let them die. Maybe we should at least give those who want execution the chance to have their lives ended, instead of keeping them on suicide watch for the rest of their lives.
I think overall as most people would agree that capital punishment is wrong in many circumstances, but I would argue that in some cases punishments, such as the death penalty, can be used in a humane way.
Summary: Sometimes it is the right thing to do
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