NCJ Number
217098
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 124-158
Date Published
February 2007
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether a person's race had a direct effect on his/her support for capital punishment, with attention to whether the influence of race varied by class, being a native southerner, confidence in government officials, political orientation, and religious affiliation.
Abstract
The study found that African-Americans were much less likely to support the death penalty than Whites, regardless of the influence of class, confidence in government, conservative politics, regional location, and adherence to religious fundamentalism. This suggests that African-Americans view capital punishment in America as being disproportionately and unfairly applied to African-Americans by a criminal justice system dominated by White policymakers and criminal justice decisionmakers. It further suggests African-Americans' awareness of a history in America of racially motivated lynchings. This study analyzed data from the cumulative General Social Survey (GSS) conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. This is a repeated cross-sectional survey based on a representative sample of adults who live within the United States. The GSS sampled approximately 1,500 respondents each year from 1972 to 1993, except for 1979, 1981, and 1992. Respondents were asked whether they favored or opposed the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. The response categories included "favor," "oppose," and "don't know." Independent variables measured were race, class (income), being a native southerner, being affiliated with a fundamentalist religious group, political orientation, and confidence in government officials. The study included variables that past research had found to be related to support for punitive crime-control policies, such as gender, living in an urban area, and age. 2 tables, 19 notes, and 83 references