capital punishment

(noun)

Punishment by death.

Related Terms

Examples of capital punishment in the following topics:

  • The Death Penality

    • Capital punishment is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.
    • Capital punishment is often opposed on the grounds that innocent people will inevitably be executed.
    • Capital punishment is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.
    • Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as "capital crimes" or "capital offenses. " Capital punishment has in the past been practiced by most societies.
    • Capital punishment is often opposed on the grounds that innocent people will inevitably be executed.

  • Formal Means of Control

    • Criminal sanctions can take the form of serious punishment, such as corporal or capital punishment, incarceration, or severe fines.

  • Prisons

    • For most of history, imprisoning has not been a punishment in itself, but rather a way to confine criminals until corporal or capital punishment was administered.

  • Power, Authority, and Violence

    • For example, while a mob has the power to punish a criminal, for example by lynching, people who believe in the rule of law consider that only a court of law has the authority to order capital punishment.

  • Class, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System

    • For instance someone committing a white collar crime is most likely from the higher classes and is less likely to be reported or punish.
    • Based on a dialectical materialist account of history, Marxism posited that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions leading to its own destruction.
    • That white-collar crimes are less likely to be tracked, less likely to be reported, less likely to be prosecuted, and are more likely to be committed by people in higher social classes suggests that the way crimes are punished in the United States tends to favor the affluent while punitively punishing the less affluent.
    • Within the criminal justice system, there are three basic elements that constitute it: the police, the courts, and punishment.
    • There are four jurisdictions for punishment: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and societal protection.

  • Capitalism

    • Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor.
    • Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism.
    • Capitalism is generally viewed as encouraging economic growth.
    • The relationship between democracy and capitalism is a contentious area in theory and popular political movements.
    • Examine the different views on capitalism (economical, political and historical) and the impact of capitalism on democracy

  • The Marxist Critique of Capitalism

    • Capitalism has been the subject of criticism from many perspectives during its history.
    • Criticisms range from people who disagree with the principles of capitalism in its entirety, to those who disagree with particular outcomes of capitalism.
    • In this sense they seek to abolish capital.
    • Capitalism is seen as just one stage in the evolution of the economic system.
    • Examine Karl Marx's view on capitalism and the criticisms of the capitalist system

  • Authority Patterns

    • If rules are not followed, punishment is most often used to ensure obedience.
    • There is usually no explanation of punishment except that the child is in trouble and should listen accordingly.
    • Authoritative parenting relies on positive reinforcement and infrequent use of punishment.
    • There tends to be little, if any, punishment or rules in this style of parenting and children are said to be free from external constraints.

  • Crime and Criminal Justice

    • Like all other aspects of criminal justice, the administration of punishment has taken many different forms throughout history.
    • Early on, when civilizations lacked the resources necessary to construct and maintain prisons, exile and execution were the primary forms of punishment.
    • Historically shame punishments have also been used as forms of censure.
    • The most publicly visible form of punishment in the modern era is the prison.
    • This can also be seen as a critical moment in the debate regarding the purpose of punishment.

  • Social Control Theory

    • Nye focused on the family unit as a source of control and specified three types of control: (1) direct control, or the use of punishments and rewards to incentivize particular behaviors; (2) indirect control, or the affectionate identification with individuals who adhere to social norms; and (3) internal control, or the manipulation of an individual's conscience or sense of guilt to encourage conformity.
    • Youth may be directly controlled through constraints imposed by parents, through limits on the opportunity for delinquency, or through parental rewards and punishments.
    • This is the question taken up by social theorist Michel Foucault in his 1975 seminal text, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
    • Rather than the state only regulating bodies, the state began to achieve social control by molding the minds of its subjects such that individuals were educated to conform even when out of the direct gaze of the punishing authority.
    • In his 1975 seminal text, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault identifies a new form of power introduced in the eighteenth century: discipline.