NCJ Number
232468
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2010 Pages: 959-968
Date Published
September 2010
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The goal of this paper was to examine whether public perceptions about executing sex offenders accorded with the punitive shift in policy and, more broadly, to contribute to scholarship on the death penalty.
Abstract
In the 1990s, States enacted a plethora of new "get tough" laws targeting sex crime. These included extending the death penaltya punishment typically reserved for murderersto convicted sex offenders. Little attention, however, has been given to explaining why these tougher responses emerged and, in particular, whether the public supported extending the use of the death penalty to sex offenders. To this end, this paper examined data from a 1991 national public opinion poll, conducted just prior to the punitive shift in sex crime policies. The study found that views about executing sex offenders depended heavily on whether the victim was a child, that support for executing sex offenders was substantially lower than for executing murderers, and that few social and demographic divides differentially predicted support for executing sex offenders versus murderers. Implications of the study are discussed. Tables and references (Published Abstract)