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The death penalty is no doubt a touchy subject, but it does have its pros and cons. Every person judges his daily activities by what is lawfully correct and wrong. If there were no laws and no punishment for the disobeying of these laws, people would do whatever they please. They follow these laws because of the threat of punishment; it is man's attitude according to nature that allows him the right of self-preservation. Possible victims protect themselves, as John Locke states in "The Second Treatise of Government" through "which is so much as may serve for reparation and restraint." Man uses punishment to retrieve what he has lost due to the unlawful, and also to prevent future copycats. The death penalty is used as the ultimate restraint from future crime. No one wants to die; it is against their nature. Men fight for survival; the last thing they want to do is put themselves in a situation in which they would face death. Therefore criminals are less likely to commit a crime when there is a possibility for the death sentence then when there is not.

Though the death penalty is the perfect deterrent, it is a poor way to punish a human being, or achieve fair reparation. There is no certain way to know someone committed a crime, and killing an innocent human being is immoral and useless to the cause. That is what makes this question so hard. According to the question, yes it is the perfect crime deterrent, but it is the worst form of punishment. It does not seem worth the risk of killing innocent human beings, however, if we abolish the death penalty I strongly believe the crime rates will increase. There is no greater threat to a human being than death, and therefore it is the best and in most cases, only form of deterrent. People simply need to accept the fact that the justice system will never be fair and decide for themselves whether the death penalty is worth it or not. Crime rates may rise, but people will be less likely to die innocently through the immediate death penalty. However on the other side, if crime rises, innocents will die in those crimes instead. This is an issue that will not go away silently or slowly and it will be interesting to see how it will evolve in the coming years.

Learn more about this author, Louis Dicrescentis.
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