Social issues don't matter. Yep. People around the country--no, around the world--say stuff like that. They only vote on economic issues. You have social conservative legal immigrants from Mexico voting democrat because of amnesty, Jewish people voting liberal for whatever reason (which doesn't even make sense!), and you name it, there are people who vote right or left because of economics. And that is fine, great. But let me set the record straight: social issues are not useless.
To prove this, I will be looking at the death penalty from an economic approach. You guessed it: costs. And the high cost estimates suffer from many issues, such as weak data, non-representative data, etc. For example, the anti-death penalty group the Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC, lists dozens of studies trying to convince us that the death penalty costs more than life without parole, LWOP. This is one of their main arguments against the death penalty. And it appeals mostly to the conservatives: the death penalty costs a lot, is a waste of money, and should be done away with. Heck, that line of reasoning is very convincing to conservatives like me. But is that correct? If it is, that makes the social issue of the death penalty an economic one--which means social issues are not just nothings.
I have written about this on other blogs, and I will use a quote I cited on an old homicide survivors article I wrote, and can be seen here. I should note I was not a very good writer (heck, I am not one now) so it was written pretty poorly. Here is a review of the literature done by the General Accounting Office back in the 1980s.
Despite the fact that the literature was pretty much baloney, the DPIC in 1994 continued to advance the claim that the DP was expensive, using the same faulty evidence the GAO discredited a few years earlier.
I suppose this begs the question: what about more modern evidence? I mean Alexander, you can't say this is still happening… is it?
Yep. It is. A book published by John Sorensen and Rocky LeAnn Pilgrim titled Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas during the Modern Era have found many issues in modern death penalty research. They often use inadequate sample sizes, do not even use cost data, fail to include all of the costs of life without parole, fail to take into account plea bargains, etc. The two most comprehensive studies on the issue have found that the death penalty costs about the same, or slightly less than, life cases.
To prove this, I will be looking at the death penalty from an economic approach. You guessed it: costs. And the high cost estimates suffer from many issues, such as weak data, non-representative data, etc. For example, the anti-death penalty group the Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC, lists dozens of studies trying to convince us that the death penalty costs more than life without parole, LWOP. This is one of their main arguments against the death penalty. And it appeals mostly to the conservatives: the death penalty costs a lot, is a waste of money, and should be done away with. Heck, that line of reasoning is very convincing to conservatives like me. But is that correct? If it is, that makes the social issue of the death penalty an economic one--which means social issues are not just nothings.
I have written about this on other blogs, and I will use a quote I cited on an old homicide survivors article I wrote, and can be seen here. I should note I was not a very good writer (heck, I am not one now) so it was written pretty poorly. Here is a review of the literature done by the General Accounting Office back in the 1980s.
Yep. If you ever read an old study, remember what the government said: those studies have faulty comparisons, don't even use cost data, and are not reliable at all. A pretty big slap in the face, isn't it?
In recent years, studies, articles, and reports have been published on the costs associated with the death penalty at state level. They have generally concluded that, contrary to what many people believe, death sentence cases cost more than non-death sentence cases. However, we found these conclusions were not adequately supported. Most of the studies did not actually compare death sentence cases with non-death sentence cases, and some of the studies did not contain actual cost data. Further, even cases where cost data were cited, these data where incomplete.
Despite the fact that the literature was pretty much baloney, the DPIC in 1994 continued to advance the claim that the DP was expensive, using the same faulty evidence the GAO discredited a few years earlier.
I suppose this begs the question: what about more modern evidence? I mean Alexander, you can't say this is still happening… is it?
Yep. It is. A book published by John Sorensen and Rocky LeAnn Pilgrim titled Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas during the Modern Era have found many issues in modern death penalty research. They often use inadequate sample sizes, do not even use cost data, fail to include all of the costs of life without parole, fail to take into account plea bargains, etc. The two most comprehensive studies on the issue have found that the death penalty costs about the same, or slightly less than, life cases.
Also assume the death penalty has a deterrent effect, which it probably does (deters 3-18 murders per execution). Each murder costs about $17 million, according to this study. Even assuming the death penalty costs $2 million, if each death penalty case deterred just one murder, $15 million would have been saved. If it deters 3, the death penalty saves $49 million. If it deters 18, it saves $304 million. So the death penalty--a social issue--is extremely important when it comes to public policy. And, in my humble opinion, the death penalty is a good thing.
And it should also be remembered the DP has importance in morality. The punishment should fit the crime. It is what our entire justice system is built upon. Justice cannot exist without a death penalty. The DP is important in both a moral and empirical sense. You simply cannot shrug off social issues.
"Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas" Books should be in italics.
ReplyDeleteLong story why I didn't. Well, not really. I had to click "no formatting" on the whole thing because when I didn't it was highlighted white. I will fix it now.
Delete