NCJ Number
188810
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 83-87
Date Published
February 2001
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article attempts to provide an example of sociologically informed activism and how that "applied sociology" can reciprocally inform academic scholarship.
Abstract
Data for this analysis were obtained during 2 decades of work with death row inmates. The study focuses on two types of action-oriented work: first, the type that deals directly with those who can aptly be described as "Dead Man Walking", as well as their families, attorneys, ministers, and miscellaneous others in their social support circles; and data learned from these groups as well as from sociological and criminological research. The work is designed to try to eliminate the "monstrous inhumanity" of capital punishment. The paper claims that the question of capital punishment is much more than the narrow question of whether to execute some low-life who has committed an unusually nasty murder. Viewing the death penalty as a battle between the forces of good versus solitary bad apples -- the only viewpoint that can make executions possible -- ends up dehumanizing all concerned. References