Punishment

Punishment Name: Institution: Date: Punishments relate to the penalties imposed for a fault in order to change the behavior to a desired effect. Capital punishment which is also referred to as the death penalty is one of the contentious issues in criminal justice, but one which is beneficial in most cases. In essence, the death penalty is imposed only when offenders commit specified capital offenses (Melusky & Pesto, 2011). Thus, the imposition of these penalties aims to deter would be offenders which may in turn facilitate behavioral change in people. There is controversy on the use of capital punishments with regards to human rights, but supporters of this view offer no alternative for dealing with capital offences. Despite the controversy surrounding the use of capital punishment, little is mentioned about the victims. However, to save the lives of other potential victims then the death penalty helps to eliminate future deaths through murder. In some rare cases innocent people may be executed, but other human activities including war and industrial activities result to death of innocent people. Thus, the argument that death penalty should be abolished fails to acknowledge that the benefits of the punishment outweigh the drawbacks. This argument takes into consideration both the victims and the offenders. On the contrary, arguments focusing on human rights simply focus on the offenders. A person would be less inclined to engage in criminal activities because of the expected consequences through punishment. Additionally, the death penalty deters capital offences as there will be no opportunity to engage in crime. Even though, proponents of capital punishm...