I disagree with this. Taking away a person's freedom can be a fate worse than death. Many people cannot bear the thought of rotting their entire life and prefer death. Of course, there is the argument that a person can get used to anything, even living in jail. I still disagree. I believe death should only be used as a political tool.
I can see we have a philosophical disagreement on the treatment of criminals. IMO punishment serves no real purpose, so disputing the better punishment is a pointless argument. I believe the priorities are as follows.
1. Protect the public by capturing the criminal.
2. Determine the criminal's potential to return peacefully to society.
-----(a) Considering the nature and circumstances of the crime.
-----(b) Considering any past history of criminal behavior.
-----(c) Considering the risk of ongoing criminal behavior.
3. Process the criminal accordingly.
-----(a) Imprison those with potential that are willing to train and reform their lives.
-----(b) Death to those guilty of heinous crimes, gross recidivism, or otherwise showing no potential.
-----(c) For those guilty of sex crimes, give them a choice --a Sexless Life or a Sexless Death. For those that agree to a Sexless Life, surgically remove their testicles and penis (aka castration-penectomy). Unless guilty of other crimes, they may go free after their surgery.
Your point makes no sense. If putting convicts to death for murder does not create deterrence than it's a vendetta. If it's neither of those, then it's pointless and achieves nothing. Murder is not a disease and cannot be "cured". As long as there are people there will be murders. The question is what can be done to reduce it. I would have maybe supported the penalty if it did create deterrence (I don't know the statistics).
Deterrence is not the core issue here. I feel like I'm about to overstate the obvious, but it needs to be said...
1. The dead commit no crimes --the probability of recidivism is ZER0%.
2. The dead do not require a lifetime of fruitless investment. They require no food, shelter, medical care, or entertainment at the taxpayer's expense.
The Death Penalty's benefit to society couldn't be more clear.
Besides, the purpose of a criminal justice system is not to deter imaginary criminals from committing imaginary crimes. The purpose of a criminal justice system is to process real criminals that have committed real crimes. If executions were intended to make an example of heinous criminals, there would be still be public hangings for mass consumption --but this hasn't been done in the United States for at least the last 4 generations.
One last thought on deterrence --Saudi Arabia has a downright Draconian criminal justice system, but they also have one of the lowest crime rates in the entire world...
Pedophiles are ill and should be treated as such. I know that many of them have serious mental issues sometimes related to being abused as children. If they cannot be cured psychologically, and cannot control their actions, they should choose between being institutionalized or castrated.
Under the current system... Imprisoning perverts tends to increase their perversions. Unless they are guilty of other crimes, remove their offensive "tools" and set them free --or just put them to death. Let them choose.
Why should we treat them differently than regular rapists?
I never said we should. However, grown women are much more likely to make malicious accusations than little children. As with all capital crimes, the burden of proof should be very high in any case. But again, if society is going to convict someone of a sex crime, they must also be prepared to follow with an appropriate sentencing.
Their crime is not being attracted to children, it's abusing children. So they should be punished for the abuse and then treated to see if they can control their actions (both rapists and pedophiles).
There is evidence to suggest that deviant sexuality is hormonal as well a psychological. Removing the testicles would help eliminate the hormonal element, but the psychology revolves around pleasure --and a man's pleasure revolves around his penis. That is why I favor penectomy as well.