American Death Penalty Opinion, 1936-1986: A Critical Examination of the Gallup Polls (From Death Penalty in America: Current Research, P 113-145, 1991, Robert M Bohm, ed. -- See NCJ-125734)

• NCJ Number: 127542
• Author(s): R M Bohm
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter describes data from the Gallup public opinion polls of the death penalty for murder conducted over the 50-year period, 1936-1986. It briefly reviews theoretical speculations about the data and discusses general problems with death penalty opinion research.

Abstract

Descriptive analysis of the data covers 10 demographic characteristics: gender, race, age, politics, education, income or SES, occupation, religion, city size, and region of the country. The results indicate that the majority of people in all demographic categories examined currently support the death penalty. However, blacks, females, people under 30, democrats, college graduates, people in the low income or SES category, manual laborers, easterners, and southerners support the death penalty less than whites, males, republicans, high school graduates, people in the top income category, clerical and sales workers, and westerners and midwesterners. In addition to social demographic analysis, historical analysis is required in future research on public opinion of the death penalty. Problems encountered in social survey research are sampling and measurement errors. 1 figure, 11 tables, 11 notes 34 references