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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR><BR>> Perhaps, as an American, I am more willing to believe in the
effect of executions<BR>> on willingness to murder because of the social
experiment the US has provided in<BR>> this regard. Not only do states with
the death penalty have higher murder rates,<BR>> but when a state legalizes
the death penalty, the murder rate rises in the next<BR>> few years. When a
state outlaws the death penalty the murder rate declines for a<BR>> few
years. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Are all possible confounding factors (such as, for example, death penalties
being likely to be legalised/outlawed during periods when murder rates are
rising/falling respectively for unrelated reasons) eliminated?</DIV>
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<DIV>I don’t have any axe to grind here; perhaps the death penalty somehow does
have a positive effect on the murder rate. But scientific research in such
fields is often highly agenda-driven, and agenda driven science is prone to miss
explanations that are inimical to the agenda.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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