An Alternative to the Death Penalty Throughout history, governments have struggled with the concept of preventing crime. One of the most obvious ways to prevent crime is by eliminating the criminals through capital punishment. In our society, capital punishment (the death penalty) has been legal since 1976. Since then, it has been proven not effective. It has been shown not to decrease murder rates, there are too many innocent people both falsely placed on death row …showed first 75 words of 664 total…

…showed last 75 words of 664 total…that murder is not the answer. It is obvious that not all violent crime will be immediately cured by this system, but instead of punishing what is in the past we should take this left over crime as an indication that further improvement to the positive teachings is required. Applying the teachings of Confucius regarding the prevention of crime will lower crime, and in the end, prove that there is no need for capital punishment.