NCJ Number
210264
Journal
Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: 2005 Pages: 1-34
Date Published
2005
Length
34 pages
Annotation
Using the 2002 General Social Survey (GSS), this study examined the relationships among empathy, two intervening variables, and public support for the death penalty.
Abstract
For the purposes of this study, "empathy" is defined as "the imaginative transporting of oneself into the thinking, feeling, and acting of another and by doing so viewing the world as the person does." The 2002 GSS was used for the study because it is the only year the GSS included an extensive array of items that address the various aspects of empathy. It also included measures of racial and ethnic intolerance and political ideology. The study's dependent variable was support for the death penalty. The independent variable was empathy, and intervening variables were political orientation and racial and ethnic intolerance. Control variables were gender, race, income, age, education, southerner, population size, marital status, and religious measures. The analysis encompassed 912 respondents. The study's central finding is that empathetic Americans are less likely to support the death penalty. Empathy directly predicted opposition to capital punishment while controlling for a number of variables that research has identified as correlates of support for the death penalty. This finding is consistent with the small, emerging criminological literature which has concluded that those who are more forgiving and compassionate are less supportive of the execution of offenders. 4 tables, 4 notes, and 176 references