The Difference Sentencing Models

Retribution

The act of retributing; repayment.

That which is given in repayment or compensation; return suitable to the merits or deserts of, as an action; commonly, condign punishment for evil or wrong.

Specifically, reward and punishment, as distributed at the general judgment.

Incapacitation

Executions maximize public safety through a form of incapacitation and deterrence. Incapacitating a person is depriving s/he of the physical or intellectual power of natural of il/legal qualifications (Webster, 574). Executing a person takes away the capacity of and forcibly prevents recurrence of violence. Deterrence is the act or process of discouraging and preventing an action from occurring (Webster, 307). The possibility of execution would give a potential pause in the thought process of the murderer, using fear as an incentive for preventing recurrence or quite possibly the first occurrence of murder.

Use of the death penalty as intended by law could actually reduce the number of violent murders by eliminating some of the repeat offenders thus being used as a system of justice, not just a method of deterrence. Opponents of the death penalty will argue that although it is said to exist as a crime deterrent, in reality it has no effect on crime at all. Modern supporters of capital punishment no longer view the death penalty as a deterrent, but as a just punishment for the crime, a shift from the attitudes of past generations.(Norman 1) Previously the deterrence argument put the burden of proof on death penalty advocates, but recently this argument has become less effective due to what one source said, "...in recent years the appeal of deterrence has been supplanted by a frank desire for what large majorities see as just vengeance." (Dionne 178-180)

Deterrence is a theory from behavioural psychology about preventing or controlling actions or behavior through fear of punishment or retribution. This theory of criminology is shaping the criminal justice system of the United States and various other countries. It strongly overpowers other theories of human behavor in the corrections