[ExI] free-will, determinism, crime and punishment

[gts]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:33:34 -0400, Michael M. Butler <mmbutler at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Am I hallucinating, or is someone seriously proposing -- more than
> once -- that nonlethal deterrence of criminal behavior including
> punishment works and is somehow appropriate, but that capital
> punishment is bad and isn't justified... ...without, apparently,
> noticing that the threat of capital punishment juuuust miiight have a
> deterrent effect on some people?

As I mentioned to Lee, it is very controversial whether capital punishment  
deters homicide better than prison sentences. In fact there is evidence to  
support the hypothesis that it has the opposite effect. Some researchers  
theorize that capital punishment has a 'brutalization' effect on society  
in those states in which it is legal, an effect which could encourage more  
homicide than otherwise by cheapening the perceived value of human life.  
And unlike any other kinds of punishment, there can of course be no hope  
of rehabilitating a criminal by killing him.

In other words, deterrence and rehabilitation are weak arguments for  
capital punishment. It's mostly about retribution.

-gts