Abstract
This chapter examines the ultimate penal deterrent — the taking of an offender’s life, by the state or by its agents. It deals with different types of capital punishments; it examines arguments for and against capital punishment; it illustrates the process of capital punishment and its impact on relatives, friends, officials and others closely involved. Execution, of course, may also be viewed as the ultimate act of power, in keeping with dominant images of masculinity. The intersection between issues of dominant masculinities, political authoritarianism and aggression and the deployment of capital punishment by a government in power, is indicated in this chapter. There is not space to fill out these connections in further detail.
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
(Sir Walter Raleigh, returning to prison from his trial, quoted in Cohen and Cohen, 1992, p. 325)
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© 1998 Robert Adams
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Adams, R. (1998). Capital Punishment. In: Campling, J. (eds) The Abuses of Punishment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389281_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230389281_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-64846-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-38928-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)