Notes

I chose to carry out a survey on the death penalty in America because I wanted to find out what other people thought about the subject. By finding this out, I could then reach conclusions based on their thoughts, instead of just having my own.

One weakness of my survey is that only two people from America took it. This is a weakness, because my survey is based on the death penalty in America, not Britain. Therefore meaning my conclusions won't be as accurate, because British people know less about the subject, since Britain no longer has the death penalty. Next time to improve this I will send my survey to our exchange school in New Jersey.

One strength of my survey is that 54 people took it. This is a strength because 54 is a lot of people, meaning the conclusions I reach will be more valid, since I have a lot of people's thoughts on the subject.

Another weakness of my survey is in question four, where I asked people if they thought abolishing the death penalty in America would save money or not and 25 out of 54 chose the "don't know" option, which is a majority. This is a weakness because it means I can't make a proper judgement on weather people think abolishing the death penalty would save money or not. Next time to improve this I will not include a "don't know" option, and only put a yes or no option, so I can make a proper judgement for my conclusions.

Another strength of my survey is that I had very few skipped questions. Even in question two, where I asked people to comment what crimes they thought deserved the death penalty and only two people did not answer it. This is a strength because it means my conclusions will be more valid, since hardly anyone skipped the question.

I chose to use an internet search because using search engines, such as google or bing, you can type in things like "death penalty in America" and information will come up in seconds. However, a weakness of using the internet is that it actually takes time to look through different websites, to find one with the most useful information. So next time to improve this I will use more specific terms, so the website with the most useful information is at the start of the search.

The website I found useful was called Pew Research Centre. I found this website useful because they carry out regular large scale surveys. They carry out surveys in America, and 1017 people took their survey on the death penalty. This is useful because it means whereas my survey lacked American opinion, I can combine their survey results with my own, so my conclusions don't lack American opinion.

A weakness of the website is that it was published in March, 2014. This is a weakness because it is over 3 years old, meaning the information will not be up to date with this years information, making it a less useful source. However, to improve this I will just need to back the information up with more recent example.

One reason against the death penalty is that it costs a lot of money. From my research I found out that keeping a person in prison actually costs less than putting someone to death. Keeping a person in prison only costs around $170,000, whereas giving someone the death penalty costs over $1.3 million. This therefore shows that abolishing the death penalty is a good idea for America, because they could then use the money on things that are important, such as education.

One reason for the death penalty is that it gives closure to the family and friends of the victim, if the person has been murdered. A woman and her two kids were murdered in 2014, and the family of the woman and two kids told a reporter that when they found out the murderer had been sentenced to death they felt so much relief and closure. Therefore meaning keeping the death penalty is a good idea, as it clearly gives closure to the victims family and friends. In the website it shows that in 2014, 55% of American's, which is a majority, were in favour of the death penalty. Which clearly shows that the death penalty should not be abolished.

Another reason against the death penalty is that innocent people have actually been killed because of it. It was said that in Oklahoma a man was fired from his job because he gave false and miss leading information about 21 death penalty cases and only 11 of the people lived. From my survey results it clearly shows that 37 our of 54 people think that innocent people have been killed because of the death penalty.

In conclusion to all of this, I have decided that the death penalty should be abolished in America in all 50 states. A big reason I think it should be abolished is because of the cost, and America is in dept, so abolishing the death penalty would save a huge amount of money for them. The money they raise could then go to important things, such as funding education, helping the homeless, or on food stamps.