The Ultimate Lesson

Violence Begets Violence

ast spring a man from Texas was executed for a crime he committed when he was only 17. The Supreme Court had upheld the death penalty for juveniles some years ago, and this time it declined to reconsider the issue.

He was the tenth man executed in recent years from crimes committed during their youth. A week before, it was a man from Paraguay. His government had interceded, asking for a stay of his execution. So did Madelaine Albright on behalf of the State Department.

During the previous month, Florida executed a woman, just as Texas had several weeks before. While sympathy once had made capital punishment of women exceedingly rare, it is becoming more common.

On the issue of capital punishment, entreaties by the State Department, a foreign government, and even the Pope are not treated seriously. And our usual concerns for women and children have no place.

So numb are we with violence, so stubborn and angry are we on this issue, that we no longer stop and think. What message does this give our children, who see the morning news of still another execution about as frequently now as I burn the bread in the toaster?

We mirror the worst in our public entertainment. The glorification of violence in television and film escalates because violence sells. Perhaps the death penalty allows us to play the role of our heroes, those glorious film idols that we so yearn to be. Violence may be uncivilized and against the law. But the secret that Hollywood understands is that we love it.

When violence is glorified and served up as daily fare, we become desensitized. At precisely the time in their development when our children face what might be called moral adolescence, we bombard them with images that say that killing and violence are all right.

We desensitize them to violence, glorify it, and in the process justify it. Is it any wonder that there is so much juvenile violence? And when the government does it in our name, we become the executioners.

We give a mixed message. And the social cost it imposes on our youth at the time of their search for moral identity is reason enough to give up the death penalty.

The other arguments against the death penalty are formidable. It is discriminatory. It falls unfairly on the poor, on racial minorities, on the disaffected, on the powerless.

Capital punishment also is immoral. Because the penalty has never been shown to deter capital crime more than a life sentence would, it amounts to the gratuitous taking of life. The urge for revenge, however understandable, should not justify the taking of life.

To what extent has the death penalty contributed to the violent nature of our society, and in particular, to the rising tide of juvenile violence? As Justice Brandeis reminds us, government is the great teacher. It teaches by example.

This is how our children learn, through what psychology calls modeling. When our government justifies the taking of life, it legitimizes killing. That lesson is not lost on our youth.

The impact of the death penalty on the problem of juvenile violence is not often taken into account in our policy analysis of the costs and benefits of maintaining the death penalty.

There are many reasons for ending the death penalty. Its effect on our children and society has not been given sufficient consideration. It is time to put a halt to this dehumanizing practice that reinforces the legitimacy of killing.