A dysfunctional comparison
Madanthonywayne said:
South Africa abolished the death penalty and has one of the highest crime rates in the world
Comparing the United States to South Africa is, well, slightly dysfunctional. Put Americans through similar conditions for an extended period, and we'll get
really violent, too.
One of the problems with such direct comparisons, whether it's to Sweden, South Africa, Japan, or anywhere else, is that they're superficial. We see the same problems with gun-control arguments. Pretending that any single-issue comparison tells a functional truth is an exercise in futility, a way to make sure nothing ever gets solved.
Taking Sweden, South Africa, and Japan to compare, it's not a matter of whether or not there is a death penalty. Rather, the difference is a matter of cultural outlook, which does
include how people view state-sanctioned homicide. The American culture is and has been since its founding one based on perversity and violence. This is, in part, our Puritan obsession with sex, and in part our Revolutionary and pioneer heritage, which
demanded a certain degree of violence. And it's the violent heritage that is most relevant here. While Europe, certainly, has had its share of ludicrous violence over the years, these are smaller countries with longer cultural histories. Their size makes it easier to develop a general cultural identity, and the periods and natures of their histories generally mean they've had more time to cultivate those attitudes and beliefs.
Japanese culture, by the American view, is almost entirely foreign insofar as most Americans have a hard time imagining some of the things we hear about. Even if it's just stereotypes about suicides for bad math scores, or young executives singing loudly and off-key in the street as part of their job training, or authoritarian family values, there seems a tremendous difference between how Japanese and American people view their society and their relationship thereunto.
South African culture has been in flux for
centuries. The place is, traditionally it seems, wracked by poverty, injustice, and administrative corruption at least. This is a pretty good recipe for social and political violence.
If we consider Kenya, since it's an ongoing situation, the murder rate is about to skyrocket. And much of this violence has been a long time in the making, from the injustice of colonization to the inequity of independence. According to
ReligiousTolerance.org, Kenya has in place "an informal moratorium on executions"°, and it would be foolish, I think, if we were to attempt to draw any causal connection between that status and the fact that their murder rate is rising almost daily right now. While it is, of course, an extreme example, the point is to remind that simple comparisons of murder rates and the presence of the death penalty have limited implications at best.
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Notes:
° Kenya has in place "an informal moratorium on executions — While the site lists 2003 as the date of the informal moratorium, it also notes that Kenya "executed its last prisoner on death row in 1984".
Works Cited:
Robinson, B. A. "Countries that have abandoned the use of capital punishment". (1995) Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. December 26, 2007. See http://www.religioustolerance.org/executh.htm
