Capital punishment for murder
Parliamentary paper has been published, which presents considerable reason for doubting whether capital punishments have the effect of diminishing the frequency of the crime of murder. The first table in the paper is very gratifying, as shewing the diminutiion of the crime in England and Wales since the year 1812:-
Committal’s and executions for murder
Committed Executed
6 years ending December 1818 444 122
6 years ending December 1824 407 91
6 years ending December 1830 411 75
6 years ending December 1836 413 74
6 years ending December 1842 351 50
Second table gives four years in which all the persons convicted of murder were executed, and shows that in the years immediately following there was an increase of 12.9%, in the commitments for the crime; and it also gives four years in which the smallest proportion of those convicted for murder were executed, and shows that in the years immediately following there was a decrease of 17.1% in the commitments for the crime. This is just the reverse of what might have been expected, if capital punishments were effectual in deterring from the commission of murder; and it at least affords room for questioning whether such is the effect of executions.
(Note the paper doesn’t publish the 2nd table !)
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