what does deterrent mean? as in the death penalty failed as a deterrent.?

Answer 1

To deter means to "STOP"
In this case, the death penalty failed to STOP killings.

Answer 2

Deterrent, as in to keep someone from committing a certain action. However, the death penalty is a punishment. I don't know where people get the notion that it is supposed to be a deterrent. I think that notion came from the debate over the death penalty and proponents of it made some of their arguments based on the death penalty as a deterrent. However, to deter an action it would have to be a predecessor to the action, not a post judgement. Now, go do your own research, cause any teacher who knows their students will be able to tell if an argument is not their own. LOL.

Answer 3

It means the death penalty does not prevent others from committing the same crimes. When we talk about deterrence in the criminal justice system, we mean that other people will think the punishment is so terrible that they will not commit the crime.

Homicide rates and rates of violent crime are higher in states and in regions with the death penalty than in those that do not have it.

On the other hand, to incapacitate means to prevent someone who has already commited a crime from doing it again. Certainly the death penalty does this. But so does life without possibility of parole.

Answer 4

I love it when people say we should do away with the death penalty because it is not a deterrent to crime. They are saying no one thinks about the death penalty, then decides to not do the crime. How do they know that? I know they can only make that assumption based on statistics of crimes during any given period of time. How do they know that someone didn't stop themselves from committing murder because they were afraid of the death penalty?Anyway if you follow that reasoning, shouldn't we just do away with laws that people break? The laws must not be a deterrent if people still break them right? The libs need to learn that the death penalty is not about being a deterrent, it's about justice.

Answer 5

What Is Deterrent Means

Answer 6

People always say capital punishment is not an efficient deterrent. That may be true for the average pyschopath, but not the rest of us. There have been times in my life where I sorely wanted to kill someone and did not largely out of fear of punishment. Normal people are deterred by the death penalty. Nothing deters psychopaths so it is better to give them death.

Answer 7

To dissuade.But the death penalty is a great deterrent.

Answer 8

It's like discouraged.... if something is an effective deterrent, it would discourage, or keep others from doing the same thing.

And yes, the death penalty has failed as a deterrent.

Answer 9

A deterrant is something that causes you stop doing something else. In other words, the fear of being put to death (the death penalty) is not enough to keep someone from doing something like murdering another person. The consequence isn't seen as being immediate enough or as a big enough threat to stop someone from committing a crime.

Answer 10

OMG, are you serious. Just because these people committed crimes your basically saying it's OK to torture them. Experiments are dangerous and a lot can go wrong. Did you know that during the Luxembourg trials after World War II the scientist put on trial claimed that the Holocaust was for the sake of science and that since the "Jews were inferior" they thought of them as the perfect 'guinea pigs' , so when you were writing this questions you didn't think how barbaric and murderous you sounded. Personally I don't like the death penalty either, but it's better than suffering everyday.

Answer 11

a deterrent is a punishment or something bad to deter (stop) people from doing bad things. So having the death penalty isn't stopping people from committing crimes that put them on death row.