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Victoria Iuzzini & Stacy Park

Grace Apiafi

HED 044

13 February 2017

Project 3: Final Paper

The death penalty is a capital punishment where one is killed because of the crime they

committed. There are currently 31 states in America that allows death penalty. A popular debate

about the death penalty is if it is moral to kill someone based on a crime they committed. In the

eyes of functionalism, there are positives and negatives of having the death penalty.

Functionalists view a society as a system of interconnected parts that work together to

keep a state of balance and harmony as a whole. There is the idea that people need to be

regulated for everyones benefit, so in the functionalist point of view, the death penalty would be

fair for the people who disturbs the harmony of society. The death penalty would be how social

structures meet social needs due to the fact that it is a law that can protect the citizens and would

allow them not to worry about their safety. Functionalism is heavily based off the ideas from a

man named Emile Durkheim who was the first ever Professor of Sociology. Durkheim

believed that there was a social structure and it was made out of norms. He also believed that

individuals are selfish and that they had to be put in order. The death penalty supports

Durkheims idea as to put people who are dangerous and selfish in order as they are not allowed

any outside contact and are isolated. It also supports Durkheims ideas due to the fact that the

norm is that no one should commit heinous crimes as that is a social norm that is in place.

In the functionalist perspective, there are many positives of the death penalty. In the

functionalist perspective, they mostly would want to know what the benefits that the death
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penalty to society are. Some examples are how it could eliminate violence, gives a greater sense

of security for the population and how society can get rid of criminals from returning to society

or preventing others from committing heinous crimes- at using the death penalty as a crime

deterrent. Using the death penalty as a crime deterrent would benefit to society. According to

Michael Summers, PhD, MBA, Professor of Management Science at Pepperdine University,

...each execution carried out is correlated with about 74 fewer murders the following year...

(Michael Summers, PhD, MBA, 2007) this study showed that when a criminal who committed a

heinous and beyond wrong crime was executed, there were less people committing that crime the

next year. This shows that the death penalty works when to comes to preventing people from

committing crimes, therefore making it a safer environment for society. Another person to speak

on this advantage of the death penalty was Hashem Dezhbakhsh, PhD, and Joanna Shepherd,

PhD who stated in their study "The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: Evidence from a

'Judicial Experiment'" that, Each execution results, on average, in eighteen fewer murders with

a margin of error of plus or minus ten. There are more many studies proving that the death

penalty decreases the amount of criminals.

There are still downsides about the death penalty in a functionalist point of view. The

goal of functionalism is to ensure the safety and norms of a society and to keep a society as a

whole. However, death penalty critics deemed it as morally wrong and that it adds more

violence. It also goes against the fact that it fails to ensure the safety of a citizen and that it

implies that a norm allows people to kill others. Another downside about the death penalty is that

killing someone costs more than actually feeding and containing the inmate. The drugs used in

the lethal injection and other expenses related to the execution are more costly(Future of

working, 2016). The death penalty can cause guilt and depression after ending the prisoners life.
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Lastly, if the prisoner is found innocent after being executed, this could lead to societys lost of

trust towards the government and others. All in all, these downsides go against what a

functionalist aims to do : to regulate society so it can be able to function smoothly and as a

whole.

Though there are many studies proving that there is positives to having the death penalty

we believe that the death penalty is unnecessary and that it is harmful to society. We feel as if the

death penalty is inhuman and sends a hypocritical message. Accountability for crimes is of

course very important, but killing someone because they kill someone sends a negative and

wrong message. Society needs to move away from the eye for an eye belief because looking

historically, that mindset only causes more crime. Functionalism relates to the death penalty due

to the fact that it, in a way, helps keep society safe and as a whole, but there are other ways to

keep and make society a safer place. Would you condemn a person to death just for a crime they

did even if they were a family member or someone you loved just because society tells you that

it is the best measure? Also, will you just go along with societal norms even though you know

how wrong they are? Just to fit in?

Cited Sources

10 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Death Penalty. FutureofWorkingcom,

futureofworking.com/10-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-the-death-penalty/.

CNN. CNN, Cable News Network,

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www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/us/death-penalty-fast-facts/.

Does the Death Penalty Deter Crime? - Death Penalty - ProCon.org. (n.d.). Retrieved

February 16, 2017, from

http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000983.

The Functionalist Perspective - Boundless Open Textbook. Boundless,

www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/sociology-1/the

oretical-perspectives-in-sociology-24/the-functionalist-perspective-155-3284/.

The Functionalist Perspective Class Notes for A Level Sociology (Year 2).ReviseSociology,

27 July 2016, revisesociology.com/2016/01/23/functionalist-theory-sociology/.

Messerli, J. (n.d.). Death Penalty (Pros & Cons, Arguments For and Against,

Advantages & Disadvantages). Retrieved February 16, 2017, from

http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm.

Swisher, Tori. "Death Penalty." Prezi. N.p., 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.