“APA should stand up against the death penalty”

“APA should stand up against the death penalty” is an article (Page 5, “President’s Column”, Monitor on Psychology, October 2013, Volume 44, Number 9) by Donald N. Bersoff, the current APA (american Psychological Association) President, that is apparently not currently also published on the APA Monitor website.

The Author (as a matter of disclosure) of this article in The Hygiology Post ® has been a Full Member of The American Psychological Association since 1993.

The article by APA President Donald N. Bersoff seems to underscore that many if not most current Members of APA continue to not be for/not be advocates for a relatively high level of healthy social change and thereby apparently do not individually have a high level of the Intuition, Artistic, and/or Investigative personality constructs (Please see “Six Part Series: Healthy Change” © 2011  in The Hygiology Post ®.).

The article started out in the following way:

“This summer, a federal review found that as many as 27 death penalty convictions may have been based on erroneous testimony. APA has long recognized that inaccurate testimony is just one of the problems inherent in the death penalty. That’s why in 2001, APA’s Council of Representatives called upon U.S. jurisdictions that impose the death penalty to not carry it out until they impemented policies and procedures that could be shown through social science research to ameliorate serious deficincies in how executions were carried out. That was a significant step forward. It is now time for APA to urge the abolition of the death penalty.”

A paragraph in the middle of the article started this way:

“In essence, retribution is founded in the unscientific belief that behavior is the result of free will. People choose, the position claims, to engage in evil behavior and, therefore, deserve the punishments they receive, including execution by the state…”

And, the article ended in the following way:

“I recognize that my call for APA to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty may be controversial. Some members will agree; some will disagree. But the death penalty is indefensible from a scientific perspective, and arguing for its abolition is the moral and ethical thing to do.”

 

The Hygiology Post ® welcomes feedback from readers as to whether the articles (individually and/or collectively) help fulfill its vision and mission.

 

Louis DeCola, Jr.  © 2013                                    The Hygiology Post ®

 

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