Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 1,7 (A-), RWTH Aachen University (Economic and Social History), course: The History of Political Violence, language: English, abstract: The History of violence goes along with the history of Human Kind1. If someone have invariably felt that they had been wronged in some way, it was his or her right to take vengeance on the person that had wronged them. The crimes committed needed a punishment, but this violence needed also a juridical guidance, The Law. Amendments were made to reflect the changes in the society′s views on the morality of punishment, including the highest sentence of all: The Capital Punishment2. The mental construction of the "an eye for an eye" policy exists today all around the world, but the actual use of this punishment enforced by law varies in form. It is all a question of a definition3. And it is also a point of view whose conclusions determine the destiny of a human life.