The Death Penalty and Emile Durkheim - Thesis Example

Whether it is the US or some other country that promotes capital punishment, the facts make it, obvious that the minorities, the poor, and the members of ethnic, racial, and religious communities are disproportionately executed (US Death Penalty Facts). The death penalty in the US constitutes an institution that defies any attempt at interpretation, from the sociological perspective. A number of institutional arrangements have been affected, which have created a novel and unfamiliar relationship between the law, lethal violence, and the state.

The situation is further complicated, due to reliance on historical accounts that are hundreds of years old, in order to explain the function of capital punishment (Garland 136). There is a noticeable absence of analysis that could provide insights into the various explicit functions and forms of the present-day capital punishment system. The reproduction of social order is influenced to an appreciable extent by the penal institutions. In view of this, it is difficult to perceive, how the death penalty, which is inflicted upon very few people, can engender a major structural effect (Garland 136).

A minuscule fraction of those who are charged with homicide, countenance capital charges, and in the US the number of people who are sentenced to death per year, is around 120. The other offenders, who are subjected to incarceration or penal supervision are in the tens of millions. Consequently, the impact of capital punishment on social order tends to be negligible (Garland 136). The largest number of executions in the world takes place in China. As per the information provided by Amnesty International, around 80% of the total executions and death sentences in the world transpire in China.

In addition, there have been a disturbingly large number of wrongful convictions and executions. Some of these were on account of confessions obtained under duress and strike–hard campaigns (Hong). Durkheim authored the De La Division Du Travail Social, which put forth a functional theory regarding the development of contemporary legal systems. From his point of view, crime went against the grain of societal standards or the collective consciousness, in addition to having an impact upon the individual (Koenig and Rustad 193).

He proposed that the organization of society and individual deviance could be best understood by taking into account the extent of social solidarity that was obtained. It was his firm belief that the division of labor in a particular society was instrumental in molding the other social institutions. Increasing complexity and diversity in society would bring about the evolution of law from repression to restitution (Koenig and Rustad 193). In ancient societies, the death penalty had been imposed for a number of offenses.

The Mosaic code, for instance, was based on the Torah, which advocated execution for various infractions, such as adultery or taking the name of God in vain (Koenig and Rustad 193). By abolishing the death penalty, the state clearly conveys the message to private actors that no provocation can justify a violent response. Such abolition also indicates that the state will not resort to violence, even whilst addressing the most serious threats to social order (Rogoff 777).