To Grendel, Love Curzon

Grendel / Grabic has challenged me—nay, dared me!—to find him evidence that Europe’s crime rate has risen since the abolition of the death penalty. He even had the nerve to suggest I couldn’t back up my claims. The gall on that German! Here, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a brief outline of the evidence that the death penalty reduces crime. Ideally, I would have found perfect statistics for just the right years. Unfortunately, that was not available, but I nonetheless found plenty of miscellaneous statistics that support my point.

First: does the death penalty deter crime? I like this comparison in particular.

Homicide Rate/100,000 by Date in US:
1980 – 10.2
2000 – 5.5

Wow, homicides cut in half! That’s quite an accomplishment. Of course, the correlation could be stronger. The death penalty was banned in the US in the late 1960s and was reinstated in the 1970s. (The crime rate skyrocketed during that period, part of what inspired the US Supreme Court to backtrack on its ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional.)

A more important issue in the US may be that we have imprisoned a lot of people over the last two decades. While our fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution put Byzantine procedural restrictions on police conduct, those who are caught, even for nonviolent crimes, are often put away for a very, very long time.

Next, comparisons of Europe and the US. I don’t think mere numerical comparisons mean much. Trends are the more important factor.

Interpol: 1995 crime statistics/100,000:
5278 – US
6316 – France
7206 – England & Wales

And six years later:

Interpol: 2001 crime statistics/100,000:
4161 – US
6941 – France
9927 – England and Wales

Raw comparisons don’t mean much: I’d rather look at 1.) trends and 2.) subpopulations. The US is made up of numerous subpopulations that vary wildly in their propensities to commit crime or be the victim of crime. Comparison between countries that have different ratios of different kinds of subpopulations doesn’t really tell you that much unless you look deeper.

I don’t want to get racial about it, but what Michael Moore tried to cover up in Bowling for Columbine was that the homicide rate for the US is basically the same between the US and Canada if you look at the populations of European and Asian origin. The hard truth is that Blacks and Hispanics, who make up 27% of the United States, account for a majority of the violent crime in the United States. One reason for Canada’s relative peace and tranquility is partly because only 5% of the population is Black or Hispanic.

More information from the DOJ, the UN, and the UK Crime Reduction page, or see blogs here, here, and here. I also like this superb AEI report, which points to the arrogance of the European sophisticates who go on and on about the barbarity of America and it’s rarely enforced death penalty all while doing little to tackle the problem of growing crime rates in their own cities.

That capital punishment deters crime perfect sense: those who murder are killed by the state, and (suprise!) this stops them from committing murder again. Additionally, other (potential) criminals see the consquences and some think twice. About the only argument people make against this rather obvious correlation is a vague insinuation that killing criminals somehow encourages a culture of death. Excuse me, but I have to call it like I see it: typical left-wing nonsense. May I also recommend examining another very safe country with a streamlined death penalty: Japan.

Of course, the US doesn’t kill nearly as many people as it should. About 30-50 people are executed a year, most of whom are killed by the states, not the federal government. I’d like to see thousands of violent people executed every year. Alas, the US is caught in a precarious position where our society cannot live with no death penalty or a meaningful deterrent. I highly, highly recommend this Slate article for more.

On a side note: comments to not have to agree with me to be constructive. Thoughtful comments that contribute to the argument are greatly appreciated. All contributions are welcome, and I particularly like those that provide new evidence to challenge what I think. Many comments on this site have changed how I view the issues.