NCJ Number
175358
Date Published
1997
Length
169 pages
Annotation
This book provides a geo-historical perspective on capital punishment in the United States.
Abstract
The book examines the incoherencies and contradictions in policies and practices across the country. It challenges the belief that capital punishment serves as a deterrent, illustrates the culture of capital punishment and its impact on selected groups, mapping the execution of women and the origin and diffusion of electrocution, the gas chamber and lethal injection. The book examines international perspectives, political pressure, opinion polls, capital punishment as a moral decision, capital punishment and geography, and trends. In addition, it discusses capital punishment and state corrections systems; regions of violence; capital punishment, race and gender; the life-without-parole sanction; changes working through the system; public defender decline; persistence of geographic variation; moral authority; and scope for further research. Notes, figures, tables, appendixes, references, index