In April of this year, The Guardian, a popular British newspaper
published an article on the trend of the death penalty being used around the
world. The aim of the article is to prove that the rate of executions has gone
down tremendously over the past ten years and to prove that, The Guardian has
extracted statistics from Amnesty International as a valid source of
information.
The article begins
with a visualization (Exhibit 1) of the number of executions carried out, as
well as the number of people sentenced to death. Not only do the numbers not
add up to the number of executions stated, we see that a “+” sign has been
added to some of the countries’ number of executions. This shows that the range
could be from the 676 executions stated to any other number. We then see that
China is not even accounted for due to the fact that there are numerous
executions that occur in the country and that “Beijing keeps these such figures
a secret”. (Rogers, 2013)
The top four
countries stated as having the highest death penalty rates are: Iran, North
Korea, Yemen and the USA. Here, the article brings back China and mentions that
including China, these were the countries that carried out the highest amount
of executions. The article also goes to mention that the USA is the only G7
country that still participates within the act of giving a death penalty.
However, this is contradicted by the visual (Exhibit 1) which shows that Japan
also is still using the death penalty.
Exhibit 1
Amnesty
International reports:
“At
least 1,722 people were sentenced to death in 58 countries in 2012. This is a
decrease from 2011, when at least 1,923 people were known to have been
sentenced in 63 countries worldwide, and a reduction for the second year
running (2010: 2,024 death sentences in 67 countries). In 2012 Amnesty
International recorded executions in 21 countries. It cannot be excluded that
executions took place in Egypt and Syria, though none could be confirmed. This figure
reflects the significant overall decline of the death penalty from a decade
earlier, when 28 countries carried out executions in 2003. Meanwhile, Latvia
abolished the death penalty, meaning that there are nearly five times as many
countries not executing prisoners as those that do in 2012.” (Roger, 2013)
This reported
quote is another place where we see inconsistency within the data. The quote is
trying to show a downward trend, that the world is decreasing on using the
death penalty. However, the data is
incomplete. The sample recorded has been from just 21 countries. We are not
given what form of analysis (i.e. regression, correlation etc.) was done, and
how those specific countries were chosen to represent the entire world. There
is mention of countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Latvia with no added-value statistic
to show a decrease in the usage of the death penalty.
The article ends
by emphasizing that apart from China, the majority of the executions have been
held in the Middle East. Forms of executions have been mentioned, as well as an
extra detail of how in certain countries what is done after execution with the
body. None of this helps us understand why we have the current numbers. No
events are mentioned that could have made an impact on the number of death
sentences that were given in particular regions such as the Middle East. A final excel sheet is attached to this
article to show data from 2007 on death sentencing and executions (Exhibit 2 –
for 2011 and 2012). This excel sheet is missing data points for various
countries every year. As a matter of fact, data from 115 countries isn’t even
accounted for.
Exhibit 2
If we scrutinize on this article, there are two factors which may cause
the reader to question this article. The first factor is on taking China out of
the statistics. China has the highest population and represents 1/5 of the
world. Without the data, our statistics are greatly skewed. If we incorporated
China into our data, there is a chance that we may see a flip in our trend line
towards an increase in death penalty around the world. The second factor that
should be noticed is where what is our source of these statistics? Amenity
International is a non-governmental organization which works for human rights.
They focus on democratic countries. It is a bit skeptical that they are willing
to show statistics for the entire world without consulting or referring to
other sources that deal with issues around the world (i.e. United Nations or
Red Cross). This brings up the question of how reliable is our source?
In conclusion, after reading this terrible analysis on death penalties,
rather than receiving facts to enlighten our knowledge, we are left with many
more concerning questions on what how this data was produced, what sample of
countries were used and on what basis were they selected, and also what methods were used to collect this
data. It makes the reader realize that to create a statistical analysis, having
authentic information is key to giving an accurate report on something as
interesting as the death penalty rates.
Rogers, Simon. Death Penalty
Statistics, country by country. The
Guardian. April 12 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/death-penalty-countries-world#zoomed-picture
(Nov 15 2013)
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