4 - Replacing the death penalty: the vexed issue of alternative sanctions

Summary

Introduction

In recent centuries, there has been a gradual move away from judicial punishments of a physical nature. Modern democracies have generally abolished any notion of corporal punishment, and in recent years this process has been linked to an increasing impetus to abolish the death penalty. To date, more than half of the nations in the world have broken with hundreds of years of penal tradition to join the ranks of countries that have abolished the death penalty. However, abolition of the death penalty is only a first step on the road to reform. Newly abolitionist states then have the task of creating a system of punishment for prisoners who would previously have been executed which is both humane and capable of satisfying the public that these offenders are securely held and are being appropriately punished. This is an exceedingly difficult balance to achieve. The task poses special difficulties in those countries that have relinquished the death penalty under political pressure and with great reservations on the part of their citizens.

Even in countries which have long since ceased to execute offenders the public's unease about what happens to convicted murderers and other very serious offenders does not dissipate of its own accord. Many states have not been very good at educating members of the public about alternatives and uncertainty still lingers.