Capital Punishment and Controlling Violent Crime

Without capital punishment (the death penalty), our lives are less secure, and crimes of violence increase. Capital punishment is essential to control violence in society. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Annotated response

13 correction notes

Showing 13 correction notes.

In a bid for additional security, whether to or not. Experts and concerned citizens are divided over its implementation and if it actually deters crimes. I am of the opinion that necessary to maintain a safe environment.

To start with, capital punishment has always been used as a method to deter crime, even before democracies existed. In monarchies, , and crimes were reduced partly because of the fear of being . In recent times, capital punishments, and Taiwan, have been awarded for fending off criminals and maintaining a safe environment for the local people.

Moreover, death penalties should be awarded in extreme scenarios and should be used sparingly. People are innately afraid of death. act as a good deterrent against crime. It also helps the local police, acts as a measure to ensure that re-offending take place, curtails retribution, and .

capital punishments reduce crimes, but an argument can be made for pleading human decency for the accused, as a democracy values all lives equally. Death penalties also set a wrong precedent for the people as those in power have misused them. All in all, death penalties need to be used sparingly and in extreme scenarios but should not be discarded altogether.

In conclusion, the topic of capital punishment is debatable and has strong views from either side. I feel it is a necessary evil that contributes to maintaining law and order in society.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response presents a clear, consistent position that capital punishment is necessary, with logical paragraphing and a reasonable range of ideas. Its main limitation is underdeveloped support, since key claims such as deterrence in the USA and Taiwan or reduced re-offending are asserted rather than explained or evidenced.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

6.5

The response addresses the question directly with a clear position and a qualified conclusion, but main ideas such as deterrence and prevention of re-offending are only partially developed and supported with vague or unverified claims.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically across well-organized paragraphs with appropriate linking devices, though some points are stacked briefly rather than fully extended, and the fourth paragraph drifts into counterargument without being resolved.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary shows good flexibility and awareness of style with terms like deter, re-offending, and a necessary evil, though some collocations are imprecise, such as controversies marred and awarded for fending off criminals.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

The response uses a range of complex structures with generally good control, and errors such as faulty parallelism and slightly awkward relative constructions are minor and do not impede meaning.