Capital punishment isn’t the deterrent that the death penalty hawks make it out to be. Let’s take the example of capital punishment for drug dealing, for instance, since drugs have become something of a rallying cry for advocates.
Having the death penalty is good public relations, for sure. And it’s scary as shit when you see it on an immigration arrival card. But then it’s really only scary to people who would normally obey the laws anyway. People who trade in drugs for a living, or who suffer from drug dependency, wouldn’t hesitate to continue on as before if the risk/benefit ratios are right.
For the drug trade, this ratio is determined by comparing the benefits that can be derived from drugs – money; influence; pleasure – versus the probability of punishment. The probability of punishment is defined by two factors: first, the risk of being caught; and second, the probability of punishment.
In the Philippines, I would say that the over-all risk of being caught is medium to low.With enough drug money to incentivize people to look the other way, the probability of being caught takes a nose-dive. The same can be said of the probability of punishment. With good lawyers and a porous prison system, even those who are caught on drug related offenses stand a reasonably good chance of escaping unscathed. UNLESS – and this is an entirely different rant – you lack the resources to buy protection, like small time drug users, in which case you are well and truly fucked.
UNLESS – and this is an entirely different rant – you lack the resources to buy protection, like small time drug users, in which case you are well and truly fucked.
In terms of the benefits, well, the drug trade in the Philippines has been estimated to rake in close to 10 billion US dollars annually, so…
Low risk versus high benefits? Shit man, even a blind man would take those odds. So what does having the death penalty actually do in this case? Pretty much nothing. If the death penalty is supposed to bring down the drug trade, the chances are high that it will not achieve that goal.
Instead, considering the realities of the justice system – not to mention the high cost of legal services – there is a very real possibility that innocent people might actually get sent to the chair more frequently than we can imagine.
