NCJ Number
74967
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1980) Pages: 453-484
Date Published
1980
Length
32 pages
Annotation
An examination of State executions and homicides in New York over a 57-year period leads to the conclusion that State executions do not have a deterrent effect on the commission of capital crimes but rather a brutalizing effect reflected in increased homicide rates in months following executions.
Abstract
Data for executions in New York from January 1906 through August 1963 and for homicides from January 1907 through August 1964 were collected to examine the effects of executions on the homicide rate for up to a year following any execution. Multiple regression techniques were used to determine how homicides in any given month were affected by executions in the preceding year. Seasonal fluctuations in the homicide rate, long-term covariation in execution and homicide rates, and discrete historical events and economic trends affecting data were also considered. The study found that, on the average, homicides increased by two or three in months immediately following executions and by one incident 2 months after executions and decreased at a statistically insignificant rate in the third month. Positive but nonsignificant increases for the 4 to 12 months following executions may indicate a longer term brutalizing effect of executions, adding possibly three homicides to the total in the last 9 months of the year following an execution. The effect of executions has been to increase homicides, not to deter them. These findings represent a direct challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty regarding its negative impact on the victims of homicides sparked by executions. Reviews of earlier studies on the brutalizing and deterrent effects of capital punishment are included, as are data tables and footnotes.