NCJ Number
206578
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 32 Issue: 4 Dated: July/August 2004 Pages: 307-327
Editor(s)
Kent B. Joscelyn
Date Published
July 2004
Length
21 pages
Annotation
As part of a series of investigations of the influence of knowledge on death penalty opinion, this study examined death penalty opinions, and reasons for opinions, more than a decade after students completed a month-long college class on the death penalty.
Abstract
The death penalty continues to be one of the more controversial issues in the United States today. This panel study examined the stability of informed death penalty opinions and reasons for opinions more than 10 years after students completed a month-long college class on the death penalty. The data provide a basis for judging the impact of the instructor/researcher and whether the “rebound” in opinions found in the 2- to 3-year follow-up study was sustained. The study consisted of 69 of the 120 undergraduates who completed a special topics course on the death penalty in America during the spring term of 1988 (N = 55) and 1989 (N = 65) at a medium-sized university in northeastern Alabama. Completed questionnaires were designed to ascertain demographic information, opinions, and reasons for opinions about the death penalty at the beginning and at the end of the semester. A follow-up questionnaire was mailed out in late 1990 with 106 of the original 120 students returned as usable questionnaires. For this study, all 120 original students were mailed questionnaires in late 1999. The results provided little support for the belief that an informed public generally would oppose the death penalty. The findings suggest that classroom knowledge might not prove an especially effective method for changing most death penalty opinions in the long run. The study indicates that within one condition, most death penalty opinions and reasons for opinions might be impervious to long-term change. References