Capital Punishment?

If a child hits their sibling, I do not think that the proper punishment is to hit them.  To me, that is counterintuitive. Instead of teaching the child the correct way to behave, you are merely reinforcing the idea that hitting is acceptable.  It brings to mind a woman I saw in a store one time, who hit her child's hands as a punishment for grabbing and then could not understand why the child was hitting himself.

Along these same lines, I do not believe in capital punishment.  

I understand that the crimes that an individual commits to be considered for capital punishment are far, far worse than hitting.  And I understand how some people believe so strongly in it.  However, I cannot advocate punishing a crime with the same behavior that caused the need for the offender to be punished in the first place.  With this kind of behavior, a whole new crop of questions pop up: When is it acceptable?  Who is allowed to decide if an individual should be killed or not?  And what gives the chooser this authority?  

In addition, I agree with Professor Stuart.  Funds could be better spent elsewhere.  Why spend so much money dealing with the aftereffects of crimes when the money could be spent preventing them from happening in the first place?  It is a lot less costly to fund preventative programs the keep people from becoming criminals than it is to deal with them after they have committed a crime.  Although these kinds of programs will not work with everybody, participants do show a lesser tendency to commit crime.  In addition, programs preventing recidivism have also proven to be successful in preventing repeat offenders.