It is a commonly held belief that the death penalty is a good deterrent to prevent heinous crimes. However, others believe that life long sentence is a better deterrent. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

The concept of the

death

penalty has been widely debated across societies . Some countries believe the

death

penalty is the only way to prevent harsh

crimes

, while others are of the opinion in favour of lifelong sentences. I believe life imprisonment is always a better option where an individual gets a chance to reflect on his actions.

However

, the laws of any country are dependent on the society in consideration. The following essay will discuss each view with relevant examples.

To begin

with, preventing the rise in the crime rate has become one of the major challenges among law enforcers. Capital punishment is the best way to overcome

this

issue because it can instil fear among

criminals

and remind them of the consequences.

For instance

, a survey conducted by the newspaper proved that the

death

penalty issued to

criminals

who are involved in terrorism, rape and other dangerous

crimes

in several countries has in fact reduced the offence rate.

Furthermore

, the opposite school of thought believes that the state has no right to end life; the

death

sentence is in itself a violation of human rights and is retaliatory in nature. The premise lies in the fact that long periods behind bars will give

criminals

chance to repent for their

crimes

and rectify their mistakes. In ,support it can be said that execution does not exist in Scandinavia, yet it has the lowest crime rates in the world. To sum up, based on the

crimes

,

criminals

need to be punished

accordingly

so that they can mitigate

crimes

and act as strong preventers of committing a crime.

Hence

, in my opinion ,

although

life imprisonment should be in vogue, the nature of punishment largely depends on the maturity of the society, beliefs of the polity and the law of the land.