Eliseo Mata

@00972153
Blog #1
September 9, 2016
Drinks with the Father of Criminal Justice
If I ever had the pleasure to have a conversation about the American justice
system with Cesare Beccaria, I am sure he would criticize how in present time there
is still more than half of the states in our nation retaining the death penalty.
Beccaria felt the death penalty was not an efficient and effective punishment for
several reasons and he would explain how the death penalty is affecting the U.S.
negatively.
Beccaria stressed the Enlightenment ideal of the social contract, an
arrangement among citizens in which they promise to follow the laws of the
government or state, and in turn, they gain protection from being violated by other
citizens. He claimed that the use of the death penalty fundamentally violated that
social contract. There are still 31 out of the 50 states in America that retain the
death penalty. Every time someone is killed by the death penalty it sends out a
negative example to society. What the government does by endorsing the execution
of a human being is it desensitizes the society to the immorality of killing. The
human life loses value in the eyes of society, which in turn, makes it that much
easier to take someones life and commit a homicide. It displays that the human
being is barbaric. This is known as the brutalization effect. The death penalty gives
much of society the logic that if the government can kill its enemies then it is
acceptable for citizens to do the same. This explains why most studies show no
effect or even a positive correlation towards homicide when it relates to the death
penalty.

Eliseo Mata
@00972153
Blog #1
September 9, 2016
Cesare Beccarias criticism on how the majority of the states in America still
retain the death penalty would be very valuable. His reasons behind being against
capital punishment are rational. He believed that it would have a negative impact
on society and many studies have showed it has. The punishment is inappropriate
because it sends the wrong message to its citizens and makes a highly immoral
action seem normal.