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Does the death penalty reduce crime?

That is a question that is impossible to answer. I'll explain why by giving you one fact and then discussing what it means.

The fact is (see link) that the South has more executions but also a higher murder rate than the rest of the country.

So what does that mean?

Does it mean that the death penalty doesn't reduce the rate of murders? Not necessarily. We don't know (because we can't do an experiment) what the murder rate in the South would be if there were no death penalty.

Now, do other regions have fewer murders because they don't have the death penalty? No way to know. There may be other factors that impact the murder rate.

So the problem with this question is that there's no way to know, no numbers that we could look at to tell us whether it works.

The death penalty is often employed as a way to deter crime; a would-be criminal may see the consequence as too severe and not commit a crime worthy of capital punishment.  Many consider this a valid argument, and it is often cited as a justification for capital punishment (see http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Articles/Pataki.htm).

On the other hand, many dismiss this argument as ludicrous.  They cite the high murder rates in places like Texas as proof that the death penalty does not, in fact, deter crime.

There are of course many factors to consider, such as poverty, drugs, gangs, and even the rise of suburbia as reasons for an increase or reduction in crime rates, and one cannot simply point to one factor as the key to reducing crime.

The need for and effectiveness of death penalty in controlling and reducing crimes has been the subject of many public debates, and many studies have been conducted to establish the impact of death penalty on incidence of crime. But as the situation stands today there are no conclusive evidences provided by such studies one way or the other, and politicians and social activists have not been able to reach any agreement on this issue. However there is a gradual move worldwide away from giving death penalty. May countries including India that have provision of death penalty have cut down the use of this drastic punishment to almost negligible levels.

My personal opinion is that some limited and cautious use of death penalty is definitely useful in controlling crime. I believe that death penalty may not be much of a deterrent for hardened criminals, but it does discourage ordinary people from committing desperate acts of crime and from adopting criminal ways of life. This definitely helps to put some checks on rise of crime.

I doubt that there are any relevant statistics that could answer this question. Although I am in favor of continuing the death penalty, NO, I do not believe that it helps to reduce or deter crime. However, if the death penalty was imposed for less severe crimes than murder or child rape (as is done in other countries around the world), then it might have an effect on reducing the more minor offenses.