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GCSE: Capital Punishment

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  1. The Punishment must fit the crime

    This means the person actually intended to kill the victim. Though a person proved to have slaughtered another member of society by accident will not be charged with murder they still have the actus reus or evil deed so it is likely they will be given the lesser punishment of man slaughter. In the case of this crime it is murder because the person had malice aforethought or the mens rea as it is obvious that the attack on the girl was planned. The quality of being just is fairness and the principle of moral rightness and equality.

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  2. The Impact of the Black Death on the Christian Faith

    (Tkachuck, 1983) As you can see by the mentioned events, the Church was already in troubled times. It is only natural to consider the fact that all these factors that were affecting the peoples of Europe were also inadvertently affecting the Church. The people's faith in the Church and God were sorely tested. The purpose of this investigation is to research and come to a conclusion as to whether the Black Death had set back or encouraged the Christian faith in its many long years of pestilence. Before the Black Death, Europe had been in the Age of Faith, known so for the time when the Christian faith in God was very strong and 'holy undertakings' such as the Crusades were made.

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  3. Capital Punishment

    However, to enable us to evaluate the dilemma we need to look at the justification for killing as punishment. In order to do this, the aims of punishment must be analysed. The three aims of punishment are: retribution, reformation and deterrence. A useful distinction between different aims of punishment is whether a punishment is isolated only with regard to the crime itself or does it consider the long term, beneficial effects to society as a whole. These considerations make a considerable difference when deciding on the kinds of punishment implemented in the particular.

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  4. The British Penal System

    However this is debatable because the offender could be released even prior to its original sentence and continues on to torment society. 2. The theory of RETRIBUTION- this theory is based on the idea that the offender should be punished suitably to the crime he or she has committed i.e. 'an eye for an eye'. However this is a subjective viewpoint as stated by the father of the Nation of India many years ago Mahatma Gandhi who once said if we are all lead on the assumption an eye for an eye then it will only make the whole world blind.

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  5. Analyse the philosophical principles of at least one ethical theory and evaluate its application to a moral dilemma.

    If eye-for-an-eye retribution does not provide a net gain in happiness, abolish it. If the right to life is not useful to society, ignore it. However, to argue the issue this way is unfair to the absolute arguments, because discarding them on the basis of utility is to begin by voiding their supposed fundamental inviolability. Working from the assumption that they are not absolute makes it an unfairly easy task to disprove them. For a practical treatment of capital punishment, it is necessary to allow for differences of opinion on the nature of absolute rights.

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  6. Is an eye for an eye a legal remedy in the 21st century?

    How is it that a society can legislate to follow the eye for an eye rule? Perhaps it's that revenge has been stated wrongly since biblical times. As the bible quotes 'Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe'iii, many citizens believe that if it is stated in the bible then it must be ok to seek revenge. However what they tend to forget is the changing of laws to suit society of the 21st century. The bible was written thousands of years ago!

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  7. Analysing a documentary called "14 Days in May".

    The incidents of minority federal capital defendant account for 74 percent of such cases since 1995. So the statistics already back up from the very start the Director's argument that there is a flaw in the Justice system. By Race of the Victim: According to the ALUC, a study of Georgia's executions found that, "Over 60 % of murder victims since 1972 have been African American, but 20 out 0f 22 people executed during that period had murdered white victims. Georgia prosecutors seek the death penalty in 70 % of cases involving crime committed by blacks against other racial combinations.

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  8. Death penalty.

    People refer to the time between 1973 and now as the "last era". In that era through August 2000, 17 men have been executed for crimes committed as juveniles. Of those 17 men one, Sean Sellers, was 16 at the time he committed his crime, while all the others were 17. Although they were all teenagers when they made the mistake that sentenced them to death, the actual execution was and still is 6 to 20 years later. From the numbers of executed juveniles as well as adults the state of Texas "leads" with the amount of people executed. The real peak occurred when George Bush became governor of Texas in January 1995.

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  9. Capital Punishment Workshop.

    The narration and the background music built up lots of worry and anxiety to make the documentary clear on how life was in different people's culture. The narration also accompanied our group role play, where we rein acted the execution in four different freeze frames. The sense of waiting for the execution was very similar to the tension in fear and misery. We looked at the moment in Fear and misery in the third Reich this is where a husband and wife await the return of there son who they think has reported them to the Nazis.

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  10. What evidence is there to support the claim that Don Delillo is a disturbing writer? In your answer, refer to the novel "White Noise"

    However as times have changed, developments in technology and the change into a capitalist society has caused humans to be viewed in economic terms, as producers and consumers. These things are the way in which capitalism views our lives and if we are neither of these two we are nothing, we are dead. This forces death out of the social realm, we no longer have a place for it in our lives as death has become Unnatural! As Jack says "every death is premature" (Delillo)

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  11. Capital Punishment

    Therefore it is unusual and infrequent for the wrong person to be executed, and in many cases those who are sentenced to death can be left waiting for years to receive their punishment, in which case, if you are innocent, by then you will have hopefully gathered enough evidence to prove so. It is common for several appeals to be applied before the sentence is carried out, hopefully in which you will win your freedom. Of course it's never just the perpetrator who suffers for their felony, relatives and friends also have to suffer the pain of losing a loved

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  12. Capital Punishment

    This could involve working with the criminal to understand why they carried out the crime and changing their attitude or circumstances to assure themselves that the same crime will not be carried out again. So basically there are five main reasons for punishment. When a punishment is given it tries to fulfil at least one of these aims: The Theory of Deterrence: to put a criminal of re offending. Also the punishment that the criminal receives will put others off from committing the crime too.

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  13. Capital punishment as a deterrent of capital crimes in America

    A more secular moral approach is also relevant in this debate, though. Common Christian Views Jacob Vellenga points out in his essay "Christianity and the Death Penalty", that (1) life is sacred and (2) those who violate that sacredness must pay the supreme penalty (124). The Bible states clearly that, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image" (Gen 9:6 RSV). This is the first Biblical reference to the "eye-for-an-eye" justice, which underlies much of the Christian support for capital punishment.

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13 essays
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Religious Studies involves more than just study the world's great religions. In studying the subject you may end up covering how spirituality underpins our culture, how belief systems inform how we treat each other, animal life and the world around us, and the role religion plays in societies around the globe. Youll pick up some valuable skills along the way too: analytical thinking and critical judgement, the ability to work with others, skills of expression and discussion, and ways in which you can negotiate and resolve argument.

You will cover the major global religions (and specialising in one or two), ethics, crime and punishment, personal relationships and the family and the response of societies to issues like poverty in different parts of the world. You'll need to be able to clearly discuss relevantpoints in your assignments and Marked by Teachers have a comprehensive range of assessed RS essays, which you can access to build the skills you need.

"

Conclusion analysis

Good conclusions usually refer back to the question or title and address it directly - for example by using key words from the title.
How well do you think these conclusions address the title or question? Answering these questions should help you find out.

  1. Do they use key words from the title or question?
  2. Do they answer the question directly?
  3. Can you work out the question or title just by reading the conclusion?

  • Compare the short stories Vendetta and School teachers quest

    "In conclusion revenge is represented by both mothers showing love. In Vendetta the mother is old and frail. This does not stop her. She promised him the Vendetta. This is her determination to seek revenge for her son. The mother was devastated with the death off her only son. She was determined to seek revenge. My over all opinion on the too stories are that I prefer Vendetta better than the School Teachers Guest My reason for this is that I like how the old widow thinks and plans the death of the man. Also how she trains the dog to become the killer, so there for if any one did find out she could blame the death of the man onto the dog 'Semillante'."

  • Although written in the 1950s Ray Bradbury presents an image of the 21st century in his short story 'The Murderer'? - To what extent do I agree with the above statement?

    "I find it very strange that Mr Brock likes any form of music. Earlier on in the passage he kicked the radio to death and he has probably destroyed many Hi-Fi's in his time. Everything taken into consideration, I do not agree to a great extent that Ray Bradbury is presenting a view of the 21st century in his short story, 'The Murderer'. The majority of people in the 21st century today are happy with modern technological items. Anywhere you go, you're bound to see people with mobile phones. A very high amount of people own a computer and virtually everyone owns a TV. It is hard to believe that anyone in this day and age would go around kicking radios to death, shove a telephone into a sink or shoot the television set. Mr Brock is a person who definitely likes living in the past, and although some people don't like or own televisions and telephones, they would not go out of their way to destroy them. For these reasons I do not believe Ray Bradbury presents an accurate image of the 21st century."

  • Discuss the Arguments For and Against the Reintroduction of the Death Penalty For Murder

    "In conclusion we see that the arguments for and against capital punishment are both very strong and depending on one's situation, circumstances and beliefs the ultimate decision to support or oppose the death penalty is that of the individual. The likelihood of Britain ever reintroducing the death penalty for murder is minimal. Politically it would be extremely hard given British commitment to human rights and our membership of the EC, which itself is highly opposed to capital punishment and contains no member states that still retain the death penalty as its highest form of punishment (www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6142/thoughts.html). 1"

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