Philosophy argumentive paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Philosophy argumentive paper - Essay Example The Romans and Babylonians are also some of the ancient societies, which embraced death penalty as an unforgiving way of administrating justice in the society, as early as 1760 BC (Horne 11). However, the growth of democracy and human rights in the contemporary society has led to the challenging of death penalty as a tool for administrating justice. This paper is a critical evaluation of capital punishment as an effective way of apprehending criminals in an effort to reduce occurrence and reoccurrence of capital offenses. Capital punishment is the most effective way of punishing capital offenses. To begin with, it is important to note that the aim of punishing crimes is to protect the society from perpetrators and also to ensure that victims are facilitated with consolation and retribution, necessary in assisting them to move on with their lives (Hugo & Casey 37). Murderers, for example, deserve an equal punishment owing to the fact that locking them in prison may not help to compensate the pain their victims go through, not withstanding the fact that there are possibilities of such criminals finding their way out, through parole, before their prison terms are over. This may be hurting for the victim’s family and friends, who would have to tolerate watching such a criminal walk in freedom whereas their own is already dead. In addition, this would subject witnesses in the case to unnecessary fear that the criminal may attack them as a way of avenging himself for the time he has spent in prison as a result of their testimony. Imprisonment of convicted criminals does not always guarantee successful rehabilitation and therefore, there is always a high possibility of reoffending. As opposed to incarceration of criminals, capital punishment ensures that criminals are removed permanently from the society, thus making it difficult for them to engage in crime. Numerous cases of murder have