Can we please end this argument now? The science has been on my side for some time, but just in case someone has missed it, a new study published in Northwestern University School of Law’s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology finds that the country’s top criminologists are decidedly of the opinion that the death penalty does not act as a deterrent above and beyond the imposition of a long prison sentence, e.g. life in prison. The study concludes “that the vast majority of the world’s top criminologists believe that the empirical research has revealed the deterrence hypothesis for a myth.” Download the study here.

President Obama said in his inaugural address that his administration would “restore science to its rightful place.” This was an implicit jab at the Bush administration – for why else would something need to be restored unless it had been displaced? – and its habit of doing violence to science. President Obama should make good on his own promise, heed the opinions of the overwhelming majority of the country’s top criminologists, base his policy on the best conclusions of science, and do away with the antiquated, barbaric and unbecoming institution of the death penalty.

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