CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BRIEFING PAPER - University of Westminster

IncapacitationFinally, in the menu of punishment philosophies, putting asiderehabilitation, we come to incapacitation, a purpose of punishment that isgenerally associated with an outcome of imprisonment. In the context of thedeath penalty, incapacitation is frequently confused with individual deterrence.Inherent to deterrence policy, is the intention to influence future behaviour andwhilst the execution of offenders certainly ‘incapacitates’ them, thus bringingan end to their criminal careers, it is not deterrence. Surely it is unacceptablefor any society to rely on such actions in the guise of penal policy?Incapacitation in the imprisonment context is favoured by some to supportcalls for whole of life imprisonment as the alternative to the death sentence,which itself raises profound questions, which we will address later, not leastbecause preventative claims applied to either imprisonment or the deathsentence are complex and controversial. 21Public Opinion –v- Public EducationOverwhelmingly, public opinion supports the death penalty, which is ofimportance because politicians, many mesmerised by such polls, are reluctantto challenge them or to encourage a more authoritative evaluation. Thepublic’s concern that in the absence of the death penalty security will beeroded and that there will be a resurgence of disorder is understandable giventhat they have been assured by governments for generations that the solutionto serious violent crime is capital punishment. Compared to the number ofpeople who are in fact executed each year worldwide 22 , the death penalty hasarguably attained an unhealthy prominence in politics as well as in the popularpress; consequently, appeals to the populist support for capital punishmentswill in many countries be politically beneficial.Few countries would have abolished the death penalty if they hadwaited for public approval, although support for it is rarely tested in light ofabolition. 23 A number do claim to have removed capital punishment with thepublic’s support, for example, after the downfall of the totalitarian regime, theParliament of the former Czechoslovakia voted in 1990 to abolish capitalpunishment in response to public opinion and in the same year, as a result ofthe collapse of the communist dictatorship and in response to public opinion,Romania abolished the death penalty by decree (Economic and SocialCouncil 1995). Nevertheless, the death penalty maintains its popularity inmost countries so the argument goes abolishing it without public support isundemocratic. Naturally, legislators should reflect public opinion to somedegree, however, it is imperative that governments lead and inform the212223See Dieter (1997).Amnesty International estimate that at least 1,591 people were executed in 25countries in 2006.In the referendum in Ireland in 2001 62% voted for an amendment abolishingthe death penalty.11