NCJ Number
147603
Journal
Behavioral Sciences and the Law Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1994) Pages: 5-20
Date Published
1994
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Using experimental methods rather than the usual attitude surveys presented in the news media, this study shows that society is sensitive to the ages of perpetrators who commit heinous criminal acts, and they are ambivalent about imposing the death penalty on adolescent killers.
Abstract
The first experiment involved 85 (47 females and 38 males) undergraduate students drawn from an abnormal psychology course at an eastern university. Four written voir dire questions were given to each subject; based on their answers, subjects were classified into one of five groups: four types of excludable groups and one group of death qualified subjects. In the second experiment there were two subsamples: an undergraduate student group (87) drawn in the same manner as in experiment I and a nonstudent adult group of 174 subjects. As in experiment I, all subjects were classified into one of the "juror-type" groups, based on their answers to the voir dire questions. In the first experiment, the defendant's age (15-25) and case (heinousness) varied. In the second experiment, type of defendant (principal, accessory, or felony-murder accessory) and an extended age range (13-25) varied. Significant age effects occurred in both experiments, with approximately 75 percent and 65 percent refusing to give the death penalty for the youngest (13-15) and next youngest (16-18) groups; whereas, 60 percent of the subjects gave the death penalty for the 25-year-old. In their reasons for their decisions, the subjects indicated the youngest defendants were less blameworthy and thus less death-worthy. 4 tables and 39 references