The director of the Australian Institute of Criminology,...

The director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, Dr Adam Graycar, commenting a report on homicide in 2001 Year Book Australia, released by the Bureau of Statistics, said that capital punishment has no effect on the crime rate. "Looking across many nations, from a policy point of view things like expanding the number of police, giving them better technology, setting longer prison sentences, imposing or abolishing the death penalty have had no effect on the homicide rate, which has remained fairly constant in most countries."