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I found it interesting how in Norway people were OK with the idea of Anders Breivik being put in a "cushy" prison while in America the vast majority of the public would want him executed or at least to spend the rest of his life in some hell hole.
Are Europeans simply less bloodthirsty than Americans, or is there something else going on? It seems like in general America is more of an "eye for an eye" society like Asia and the Middle East while Europe generally believes it's more important to rehabilitate if possible, though I've heard that in the UK and eastern Europe many would prefer America's approach.
I think you have your eye for an eye countries all mixed up but I could be wrong.
Even though it has been proven time after time that some criminals cannot be rehabilitated. The do gooders in America have whined and cried enough that prisoners now have an easier and more comfortable life than those who are not criminals in prison.
I might be wrong, but I think that here in the US we have far more wicked, demented criminals than in Europe which could explain our higher levels of cynicism. I mean, at least once a month lately there's someone in the country who shoots up a school. Americans are born and raised to be very attuned to violent crime.
Norway's life sentence is 25 years, but it can be prolonged if Anders Breivik is still a threat to society. He would most likely stay there for the rest of his life.
But anyway, I think Europeans oppose the death penalty because of the hardships of world war 1 and 2 happened on their continent after seeing so many deaths by war and leaders.....it might changed your positions.
Although, France was rather late on joining its neighbors on banning the death penalty. It did not banned the guillotine until 1981 nor the death penalty until shortly after that. Partly because the majority of French support it for certain crimes.
France's parliament only banned it because it received pressure from the European Community (the predecessor of the EU).
It's a question of what a given society concieves as "human rights" and varies widely, with abolition being a very recent phenomenon. The UK didn't formally ban the death penalty until 1998 and Australia didn't federally ban it until 2010, meanwhile other developed countries like Singapore, Japan and most of the US continue to execute criminals. Even in abolitionist countries, often a very large percentage of the population remains pro-death penalty (45% of France is in favour of it, as is roughly 50% of the UK)
European elites were against the death penalty, unlike the US. Not the US is the same, a poll in Massachusetts found only 33% supported the death penalty.
I think a large segment of the general population tend to have an 'eye for an eye' mentality, which is why I'm glad they are not the ones running the country. They hear a story of an old woman getting beat up and think the person responsible should be hung from a tree branch for all to see. It's a barbaric mentality. Go read the Daily Mail comments sections to see what I'm talking about.
Funnily enough, there was a petition recently to get the death penalty reinstated. A petition must gain 100,000 signatures to be debated in parliament, and they only gained 26,351. A petition to keep the ban on capital punishment gained 33,455 signatures. Either the polls are not as accurate as we think, or people just don't care enough to bother.
"Capital punishment ("doodstraf" in Dutch) in the Netherlands was first abolished in 1870, though only in criminal law, by the Dutch justice minister Van Lilaar. Following the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment was made an official punishment in 1878.
Between 1945 and 1952 several war criminals from World War II were sentenced to death by the Bijzonder Gerechtshof.
In military law, however, capital punishment remained a legal option until 1983, when it was explicitly forbidden in the Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1991, all references to the death penalty were removed from Dutch law.
Today the Netherlands operates a clear policy against capital punishment, such as not participating in extradition if the suspect has even the slightest chance of receiving the death penalty".
-Article 114 of the Constitution Law (Dutch: Grondwet) disables sentencing someone to death. This means that as a result, the death penalty does not exist in the Netherlands. It also means that the death penalty cannot be added to future or existing law articles. That would conflict with the Dutch Constitution Law.
Norway's life sentence is 25 years, but it can be prolonged if Anders Breivik is still a threat to society. He would most likely stay there for the rest of his life.
But anyway, I think Europeans oppose the death penalty because of the hardships of world war 1 and 2 happened on their continent after seeing so many deaths by war and leaders.....it might changed your positions.
Although, France was rather late on joining its neighbors on banning the death penalty. It did not banned the guillotine until 1981 nor the death penalty until shortly after that. Partly because the majority of French support it for certain crimes.
France's parliament only banned it because it received pressure from the European Community (the predecessor of the EU).
Maybe,but the hardships of WWII were just as tough in China and Japan(especially China),yet both countries still terminate prisoners.
I think it's more about...actually I have no idea.Probably the history and the national character?
Asian people believe in harsh penalties,so most of the countries that still practice capital punishment which are not Islamic are in Asia(except for the US).
Europeans are probably affected by the enlightenment and the long history of wars between them,the European Council is also an important factor.
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Even in abolitionist countries, often a very large percentage of the population remains pro-death penalty (45% of France is in favour of it, as is roughly 50% of the UK)
Just so you know,I don't know about Japan or China(I don't even think that China has this kind of poll),in Taiwan,the percentage of population that support death penalty is 90%.
I think a large segment of the general population tend to have an 'eye for an eye' mentality, which is why I'm glad they are not the ones running the country. They hear a story of an old woman getting beat up and think the person responsible should be hung from a tree branch for all to see. It's a barbaric mentality. Go read the Daily Mail comments sections to see what I'm talking about.
Funnily enough, there was a petition recently to get the death penalty reinstated. A petition must gain 100,000 signatures to be debated in parliament, and they only gained 26,351. A petition to keep the ban on capital punishment gained 33,455 signatures. Either the polls are not as accurate as we think, or people just don't care enough to bother.
Yes, I would say this is the case on either side of the 'pond', and here too. I mean just a few hundred years ago we were thinking up horrible ways to execute people which far outweighed the original crime. While rape is terrible, I don't see how any crime other than murder deserves the death penalty. That's not even an eye for an eye, that's two eyes for an eye! Yet there are some parents who would kill someone who raped their daughter!
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