Arguments on death penalty: Theoretical base of classical school of criminology

Abstract

Penologist their most compelling arguments against the death penalty were based in Locke’s theory of tabula rasa: if the human personality was simply an amalgam of the experiences projected on an individual over the course of development, it followed logically that criminal rehabilitation was inherently possible through penal reform. The death penalty as an (ineffective) deterrent would be wholly unnecessary once total rehabilitation was realized. The criminal was, by the reasoning of the rationalists, a "locus of individual pain and rights," a reflection of society and an opportunity for improvement. This suggestion flew in the face of the traditional view of the criminal as a permanent threat to the wellbeing of society a mindset that necessitated the hasty dispatch of said threat. The rationalists contributed more to the progression of ideas than the development of legislative penal reform. This research paper is arguing traditional overview and argument related to death penalty and its base on the literature review analysis.