There is a common question going on in the world of criminal justice; that question is: “Should the death penalty be abolished?”. If you look at the bigger picture, you will notice the United States is one of the only countries who still have the death penalty.

Nearly 70% of our country’s states have gotten rid of capital punishment. While the United States has banned most forms of capital punishment, the remaining methods are still looked down upon by many people. Some of the methods that are still allowed are hanging, electrocution, firing squad, the gas chamber, and lethal injection.

Also, when it comes to this topic, many people believe that the death penalty is the “easy way out”. Most people think this because the inmates get to have shorter sentences as opposed to thinking about their actions. People also argue that the death penalty should be abolished because even though many people are put on death row, less than 2,000 of them have actually been executed since the 1970s. This shows that even with the existence of death row, it takes a long time for them to fully reach capital punishment.

Many people also argue it is a violation of human rights and it should be outlawed for good in the United States. However, there are people who support the death penalty and say that it serves the victims’ families justice for the crime.

Overall, no side is more effective than the other. The people who commit these crimes are aware of the outcomes yet still commit the action. This shows how ineffective the death penalty truly is; the punishment does not decrease the amount of crime. In total, only 27 states still allow the death penalty which shows how much has changed since this debate began. It makes people question if the practice will end within the next 50 years.