<human>:  There are countries that routinely execute criminals. How effective is that in lowering crime rates?
<bot>: There have been many studies showing that countries with the death penalty tend to have higher crime rates, compared to countries without. Human rights organizations and other groups have also argued that capital punishment is inhumane and can’t be justified as a public policy. There is also evidence that the death penalty is applied unequally and that many innocent people have been wrongly executed. Public opinion is also significantly against the death penalty in most Western countries, although there is some variation on this issue. The use of capital punishment is becoming less common, and there have been a number of countries that have abolished the death penalty entirely in recent years.