Would this help curb crime?

Question

The government could stage all executions to be shot live and have the option to purchase it in the privacy of your own home to show your kids to scare the bejesus out of them.

To the poster below, commenting on my beauty - well, beauty doesn't keep one from having a sick, twisted mind lol I mean, look at Ted Bundy (ok, kidding there)

But really, I have very dark thoughts.

Also, I'm talking for heinous crimes that are proven beyond a reasonable doubt -- for example, the BTK killer and the Ted Bundys of the world.

Also, I think it is far worse to sit in jail the rest of your life than to be executed. You have to think about your crime, plus I think that research shows that it costs more to put someone on death row than it does to keep them in jail for life - significantly more. Correct me I am wrong, please.

Answer 1

yeah, and the money could go towards victims of crime support centres.

Answer 2

No, I don't think view-at-home homicide would curb crime. (I think execution is listed on a death certificate as homicide.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with killing them, but I think the DVD video would be too distant and cold. If you seriously want to curb crime then you let people view it live and in person. Therefore, when they tell someone else about it, they will tend to expand on the details, like the weather, the heat, the smell, the sounds and they will make it more vivid. Word of mouth is notorious for making such things seem more frightening or gruesome.

I would use beheading by sword (link to similar question below), and I would do it in an enclosed location so that only a limited number of people could view it. I would make them all wear black hooded robes over any clothes they are wearing. I'm not sure of the effect it would have on the condemned but it should make the onlookers feel as if they are participants, making their experiences more personal. I would demand silence from the onlookers, punishable by flogging. This atmosphere would make an otherwise barbaric act into a sombre ritual and increase the sense of drama, which is what you want for deterrent effect. Maybe random people could be forced to view an execution as an occasional act of citizenship or residency, like jury duty, and then required to write first-hand accounts.

I do think that it should be recorded on video, but only by the government. The government would then show the video only inside a special viewing room where adults, their children, and students, would re-enact the scene with the robes. and watch it on a large screen.

If you make execution video freely available it would cheapen the impact, but if you play it up you'll put the fear of God in people.

Does my idea have merit, or is it irretrievably twisted?

Answer 3

I've got a better idea. Now stay with me.

Assuming the criminal is a guy, every guy over the age of, say, 15, has taken a blow to the jewels at some point in his life. Well, for the uninitiated, the feeling is an immediate flash of indescribable pain that slowly fades into a dull ache in the pit of your stomach, which makes you want to simultaneously throw up and pass out. This feeling lasts about half an hour.

Now here's the thing. The criminal is tied to a post and stands there. The friends and family of his victims(s) line up, and in half hour intervals, kick him in the jewels. The can wear steel toed boots, baseball cleats, whatever.

Now, ready for the best part?

After the friends and family are done, they then let the public line up and do it for $5 a head.

Presto! No deficit.

Answer 4

I am not too sure if showing executions on TV is any good actually, it might raise more problems. But I do know this - it is more important to inject values and responsibility to children as early as possible. That every action must be accountable.

Perhaps what we need is not more corporate punishment (this is still necessary for some of the crimes committed), but a deeper insight to instill respect for people and differences. Even more so, for more serious criminal offenders - they must learn to take responsibility for their crimes. Usually - embarrassment works for most people; but where it cannot, then punishment should come into play.

I don't believe in an eye for an eye, but I do believe let the punishment fits the crime. Maybe we need an Alcatraz?

Anyway - who am I to judge what is right type of punishment?

Answer 5

There was a bill in the House to return public executions to the Capitol steps, in Austin. I'm really not sure if the bill's sponsor was for or against capital punishment, but I thought it a capital idea.
And, yes, by the time the ACLU and other lawyers have meddled in the case, it costs a tremendous amount of money to execute a criminal. I think in TX they get just one automatic appeal.

Answer 6

Nice idea and all but during the middle ages when people did things like that,,,

The good folks of the town would make up crimes (like witchcraft) just to have the entertainment.

Don't get me wrong I am all for capitol punishment on certain crimes (pedophilia, rape, serial killers etc.) Just without the fanfare a simple bullet in the back of the head and chucked in a ditch will do fine. We don't need to glorify their crimes by making a show of it.

Answer 7

Imagine yourself looking down the barrel of a loaded gun knowing you're innocent and having no idea why you're paying for a crime you didn't commit.

Would that work for you?

Even if you can find a way to make justice absolutely and completely free of errors, I doubt very much that punishing people by shooting them is the humane thing to do. To be honest, such an idea only makes me confused, afraid, and sick to my stomach. I certainly wouldn't want to live in a place where you'd have that kind of law "enforcement".

Answer 8

No, people don't commit crime with the thoughts of being caught. Most justify their crimes to themselves with little thought, if any, of the consequences of being caught commiting that crime.
Teaching children actual reasons why something is wrong and to actually concider the victim of the crime would go a long way toward stopping crime. Shock value and fear only go so far.

Answer 9

It might but it will NEVER happen. It's kinda sick if ya really think about it. Do you realize what that could do mentally to a child if they saw that? Not good things I tell ya, not good things. Hard to believe someone as beautiful as you would think something like that though.

Answer 10

We show them enough violence on TV as it is--it seems like it makes them even more immune to it, so that probably wouldn't work. Besides, there would be some sick individuals out there who would think it was "cool" to be on TV, no matter what the reason.

Answer 11

Pay-per-view? Hmmm...interesting source of income...

I'd rather see public executions. Back to using a gallows. For a menial fee, of course...