There are various sociological theories involved with the death the penalty. The death penalty was introduced in several states to punish the wrongdoers by taking their lives. It is also referred to as capital punishment as it is executed by the governmental authorities where a serious of unforgivable crime such as rape, murder, and other illegal crimes that occur. Around one-third of the world countries allow the use of this act of punishment in their states including the United States, China, Iran, Iraq, and others. On the contrary, there are several countries that do not permit the death penalty in any of their states as taking it to be an unethical and inappropriate form of punishment. Such countries include a list of Mexican states, Canadian states, Australia and many others; these countries have abolished the death penalty from their laws, rules, and regulations. To better understand and question the affects of the death penalty many sociological theories and concepts must be applied. The theories presented are Thomas theory and social conflict theory. .
According to the description provided there were a higher percentage of people going for lifetime imprisonment without parole and restitution. With this in mind, it is easy to understand that is why Thomas theory has been used in this regard. Thomas theory is a sociological theory founded in 1928. The theory states that if people define an action as correct it is perceived as correct no matter what its consequences are and what serious issue might it create for the society. According to this theory, the discussion on the influence of media has shown; that it plays an important role in socializing people and turning them towards perspectives to which their mind has not yet reached. Media has a great impact on the mainstream thinking of the people as there were two large sets of participants in the study that did not responded as the other set of participants responded.