Death Penalty Deterrence
President Trump claims that the death penalty is a “very strong preventative” to violent crime, while PBS claims that “data points” “do not show a connection between capital punishment and safer communities.”
IN FACT, it is impossible to prove whether the death penalty deters murder because association does not prove causation. However, large, relevant studies show strong associations between the death penalty and murder deterrence. For example, studies in the American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Law and Economics, and Journal of Applied Economics have found that:
- each death penalty execution deters multiple murders.
- shorter time periods from death penalty sentencing to execution deter more murders.
- the death penalty’s deterrent effect is stronger where it is imposed more frequently.
Dose-dependent associations, like those found in the studies above, are strong but not foolproof evidence of cause-and-effect relationships.
