NCJ Number
154886
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: (1993) Pages: 25-39
Date Published
1993
Length
15 pages
Annotation
A requisite of both general deterrence and brutalization theories of capital punishment is citizen awareness of executions; yet this dimension is often left unmeasured in the literature on executions and homicide; further, the current literature uses nationwide data, which introduces aggregation bias; the current study addresses these issues, testing the brutalization theory with data on publicized executions in Georgia.
Abstract
Monthly data are used to capture any short-term brutalization effect. The results of a multivariate time-series model find that a publicized execution is associated with an increase of 2.6 homicides, or 6.8 percent, in the month of the publicized execution. Publicized executions were associated with an increase of 55 homicides during the time period analyzed. The results provide no support for the deterrence, victim mobilization, and normative validation perspectives on homicide. The findings can be interpreted, however from several different varieties of brutalization theory. When the State takes life in an execution, a certain sense of legitimacy to violence may exist that can have a spill-over effect on violence, including homicide, in society. "Executioner identification" may be the main message conveyed by an execution; however, there are alternative explanations, including victim identification and crime identification. It is not possible, given the limitations of the current data, to determine which of these brutalization processes, or combination thereof, accounts for the rise in homicides. 2 tables, 4 notes, and 56 references