In their essay, "Western Europe, State Formation, and Genetic Pacification," Peter Frost and Henry Harpending argue that capital punishment, if carried out on a large scale, has beneficial effects. Not only does it provide a deterrent to crime, it reduces the number of people with genetic inclinations toward crime:
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Western Europe, State Formation, and Genetic Pacification
Peter Frost peter_frost61z@globetrotter.qc.ca and
Henry C. Harpending
In the 11th century [there was] a consensus by Church and State that the wicked should be punished so that the good may live in peace. Courts imposed the death penalty more and more often and, by the late Middle Ages, were condemning to death between 0.5 and 1.0% of all men of each generation, with perhaps just as many offenders dying at the scene of the crime or in prison while awaiting trial. Meanwhile, the homicide rate plummeted from the 14th century to the 20th. The pool of violent men dried up...
The rising execution rate was paralleled by a steadily falling homicide rate throughout most of Western Europe...
Should we also look for a genetic cause? Was the historical decline in the homicide rate due, at least in part, to a steady removal of individuals who were more genetically prone to personal violence?...
[A]ggressive/antisocial behavior is moderately to highly heritable. A meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies estimated the heritability at 40% (
Rhee and Waldman, 2002). A later twin study found a heritability of 96%.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/147470491501300114
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Social reform and social welfare spending never reduced the crime rate. Rehabilitation is rarely effective. The only thing that works is punishment.
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