New Scientist, 16 Mar 2009, David Johnson and Franklin Zimring
WILL the death penalty become a thing of the past? It is looking that way in many parts of the world. More than 100 countries - about half the world's nations - have abolished it. In Asia, however, the appetite for putting people to death still appears strong. The continent is now responsible for more than 90 per cent of the world's executions.
Even in Asia executions are frequent only in the authoritarian nations of China, Vietnam, North Korea and Singapore. Yet this still invites the question: why are some Asian countries clinging to capital punishment while the rest of the world turns away from it? Many commentators believe the key reason is "Asian values". As Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister, said in 2002: "The basic difference in our approach [to capital punishment] springs from our traditional Asian value system, which places the interests of the community over and above that of the individual."
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