Death penalty facts for kids
Death penalty, also called capital punishment, is when a government or state executes (kills) someone, usually but not always because they have committed a serious crime. A crime that can be punished with the death penalty is called a capital crime or a capital offense.
Executions in most countries have become rarer in recent centuries. The death penalty is a disputed and controversial topic.
About one third of the countries in the world have laws that allow the death penalty. The United States, the People's Republic of China, Japan and Iran are examples of countries that have a death penalty. Canada, Australia, Mexico and all members of Council of Europe are examples of countries that have abolished the death penalty.
Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious crimes such as terrorism. Other countries especially ones with Authoritarian or Totalitarian governments, however, also use it for smaller crimes like theft, or for saying bad things about the government.
Images for kids
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Anarchist Auguste Vaillant about to be guillotined in France in 1894
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The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Circus Maximus.
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The Death of Socrates (1787), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.
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The burning of Jakob Rohrbach, a leader of the peasants during the German Peasants' War.
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Mexican execution by firing squad, 1916
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Emperor Shomu banned the death penalty in Japan in 724.
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Peter Leopold II abolished the death penalty throughout Tuscany in 1786, making it the first nation in modern history to do so.
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Mother Catherine Cauchés (center) and her two daughters Guillemine Gilbert (left) and Perotine Massey (right) with her infant son burning for heresy
See also
In Spanish: Pena de muerte para niños
