GROUNDUP OP-ED: Death penalty debate is a cheap political trick By Clare Ballard
Violent crime is at the forefront of many a South African’s mind, and talk of its prevention and punishment gets headlines. But politicians, looking for attention, frame the debate by making false claims and inciting moral panic.
While in the past there have been studies claiming that such a relationship does indeed exist, these have been swiftly negated, leading the US National Research Council of the National Academies to conclude that:on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates.”
Criminality is mostly a product of socialisation; it is learned and it can, therefore, be unlearned. But the death penalty perpetuates the violence that society is trying to prevent. As Justice John Didcott inSouth Africa has experienced too much savagery. The wanton killing must stop before it makes a mockery of the civilised, humane and compassionate society to which the nation aspires and has constitutionally pledged itself.
Would South Africans equipped with evidence-based findings that high conviction rates have a marked effect on crime rates, still support the death penalty? What if the alternative to the death penalty was a conviction rate of 80% instead of the current 8%?
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