Practice PSAT 2.387: Practice Test

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PRACTICE PSAT 2 387 CHAPTER 14 / PRACTICE PSAT 2 389 ANSWER SHEET Last Name: ______________________________________ Date: ___________________________________________ First Name: ____________________________________ Testing Location:________________________________ Administering the Test • • • • • • • • Remove this answer sheet from the book and use it to record your answers to this test. This test will require 2 hours and 10 minutes to complete. Take this test in one sitting. Use a stopwatch to time yourself on each section. The time limit for each section is written clearly at the beginning of each section. The first four sections are 25 minutes long, and the last section is 30 minutes long. Each response must completely…show more content…
The only justification for causing death is to prevent the deaths of others. Thus, individuals have the right to use deadly force to save their own lives from criminal aggressors, and countries have the right to wage war to prevent their own destruction. Likewise, a community can and should use capital punishment to protect the lives of its members. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote: “The slaying of an evildoer is lawful inasmuch as it is directed to the welfare of the whole community.” When judiciously applied as a punishment for the willful killing of innocents, the death penalty serves to deter those who would murder and to protect society from those who have murdered. By reserving the ultimate penalty of death for those who wantonly kill, we are clearly proclaiming our special reverence for life. It is society’s ultimate means of selfdefense. The death of a criminal can certainly be justified if it prevents the future deaths of innocent victims. Since death is the greatest punishment a society can impose, it stands to reason that it is the most powerful way to deter those who would commit a crime. Economist Isaac Ehrlich compared the murder rate in the United States with the rate of executions between 1933 and 1967. His conclusion: “The trade-off between the execution of an offender and the lives of potential victims it might have saved was of the order of magnitude of 1 for 8.” In other words, each use of the death penalty seems to have deterred the killing of eight potential victims. Homicides decreased by almost 36 percent immediately following a
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