首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Finding something new to say about America’s love affair with the death penalty is not easy. The subject not only arouses intens
Finding something new to say about America’s love affair with the death penalty is not easy. The subject not only arouses intens
admin
2013-01-15
36
问题
Finding something new to say about America’s love affair with the death penalty is not easy. The subject not only arouses intense emotions, it has produced an ocean of comment from lawyers, judges, politicians, campaigners, statisticians, social scientists and quite a few demagogues. Nevertheless, Franklin Zimring, one of America’s leading criminologists, has managed to rise above this cacophony to write a thought-provoking and genuinely original book, The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment’, which deserves to become a classic.
Mr. Zimring tackles head-on the most puzzling question of all- why are Americans so determined to keep the death penalty when nearly all other developed democracies have given it up, and now view it as barbaric? In the past two decades, attitudes in America and Europe have diverged so much that any dialogue on the subject has been replaced by blank incomprehension, and America’s retention of capital punishment has become a significant diplomatic irritant. For European governments the abolition of capital punishment is a human-rights priority, and they have expended valuable political capital in trying to achieve it. American governments, Republican and Democratic, insist that the death penalty has nothing to do with human-rights, and deeply resent European efforts to make its abolition an international norm.
The difference between European and American attitudes, says Mr. Zimring, is not the breadth of support for the death penalty, but its depth. At the time of the death penalty’s abolition in each developed country, a majority similar to America’s, currently 65%, wanted to keep it, according to opinion polls. But when European political elites turned against it after the Second World War, electorates acquiesced. Today most Europeans probably would not want it back.
The death penalty is a far more contentious issue in America, says Mr. Zimring, because the debate about it draws on a cherished American political tradition which does not exist anywhere else: vigilante justice. Many death-penalty supporters see executions not as acts of a distant or unreliable government, or even as a crime-control measure, but as an instrument of local, community justice, a form of vengeance on behalf of the victims’ relatives.
In a startling analysis, Mr. Zimring shows that most executions are performed in a few states in the south and south-west where the lynching of African-Americans, other forms of mob violence and six-shooter justice were most endemic at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20 centuries. Opinion-poll support for the death penalty may be fairly uniform across America, and 38 states have the death penalty on their books, but many states hardly ever execute anyone. The vast bulk of executions take place only where the values of the lynch mob have endured, he says.
Many people will find this linkage distasteful. But Mr. Zimring marshals a powerful case for it, and sceptics will have to reply to his evidence, not just brush the argument aside. Americans’ distrust of overweening government power is as deeply rooted a tradition as vigilante justice, Mr. Zimring concedes. However, when it comes to the death penalty, this distrust is manifest not in an abolitionist movement, as in other countries, but in the maze of legal-appeals procedures which mean that most murderers condemned to death spend years, even decades, on death row. More death-row inmates are likely to die of old age than by execution. Neither supporters nor opponents of the death penalty are happy with this odd result.
What Americans really want is an error-free death penalty, but this can never be guaranteed, as the recent spate of death-row exonerations has shown. Moreover, Mr. Zimring argues that Americans’ ambivalence about capital punishment can never be resolved. Sooner or later, one of these competing traditions - a regard for careful legal processes to second-guess and constrain government actions, or the desire for vengeance - will have to give way. That will not happen easily. Both date back to the country’s founding.
Mr. Zimring believes, on scanty evidence, that Americans will eventually abandon vigilante values, and abolish the death penalty. But he admits that this will be a messy, bitter affair. And he could well be wrong. His analysis might equally point to another, less palatable outcome: a sweeping aside of legal constraints, and a more rapid pace of executions.
What is the main purpose of this article?
选项
A、to discuss capital punishment in America
B、to support Mr. Zimring’s views on capital punishment
C、to review Mr. Zimring’s book on capital punishment
D、to help sell Mr. Zimring’s book on capital punishment
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/IO8YFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
【66】Astateuniversitypresidentwasarrestedtodayandchargedwithimpersonateapoliceofficerbecame,theauthoritiessay,h
Americanliteraryhistoriansareperhaps______toviewingtheirownnationalscenetoonarrowly,mistakingprominenceforuniqu
Accordingtotheweatherforecast,whichisusually______,itwillsnowthisafternoon.
Thechildrenliketo______thenewEnglishteacher,whohasanoticeablemannerofwalking.
Writeashortcompositionofabout150wordsonthetopicgivenbelow.Topic:CommentontheDevelopmentoftheInternet
Aparticularareainwhichassumptionsandvaluesdifferbetweenculturesisthatoffriendship.FriendshipsamongAmericansten
Theeconomicdevelopmentofthatsmallcountryistoaconsiderableextentlimitedbythe______ofrawmaterialsandlowconsump
Theeconomicdevelopmentofthatsmallcountryistoaconsiderableextentlimitedbythe______ofrawmaterialsandlowconsum
______isgenerallyaccepted,economicalgrowthisdeterminedbythesmoothdevelopmentofproduction.
Thebraindrainofexpertsawayfromdevelopingcountrieswillgreatlyinfluencethesecountries’developmentof______industry.
随机试题
材料一:“苏联共产党是一个拥有88年历史,1500万党员的大党,却在20世纪80年代末,在一纸禁令下,一夜之间被解散了,执政地位被剥夺,苏联社会主义不战而败。”材料二:“党的十六届四中全会通过的《决定》指出,党的执政地位不是与生俱来的,也不是一劳永逸的。
下列结论正确的是().
冠心病猝死的最主要原因是()。
症见呕吐酸腐,脘腹胀满,嗳气厌食,大便或溏或结,舌苔厚腻,脉滑实,治法为
下列结论中,正确的为()。
“征免性质”栏应填()。
请你用三分钟的时间简要介绍一下你自己的基本情况,并说说你主要的优缺点,有哪些特长和爱好?【追问】(1)喜欢书、报、刊吗?(2)喜欢读哪类书籍?(3)经常看的刊物有哪几种?
《我国》刑法第133条规定:“违反交通运输管理法规,因而发生重大事故,致人重伤、死亡或者使公私财产遭受重大损失的,处三年以下有期徒刑或者拘役;交通运输肇事后逃逸或者有其他特别恶劣情节的,处三年以上七年以下有期徒刑;因逃逸致人死亡的,处七年以上有期徒刑。”
A、It’smypleasure.B、It’sheavy.C、Yes,itis.D、That’sgreat.A这是请求对方帮助自己,恰当的回答应是A,“乐意之至”。
CybercrimewhichistheillegalactivitycommittedontheInternetisthefastestgrowingcriminalactivityintheworldandis
最新回复
(
0
)