Cody Lonigro 12
The Death Penalty in America:
Who is More Apt to Support it?
Cody Lonigro
Spring 2014 SOC 240 01
The Death Penalty in America: Who is More Apt to Support it?
From trial by combat to lethal injection, the death penalty has been a controversial topic in many cultures around the world. The current trend has been to abolish the death penalty within western industrialized nations, but the United States has not yet done so (Soss et. Al. 2003:398). It is still under major debate here in the United States, both the federal and state levels. One recent study shows that nearly 70% of Americans support the death penalty for first-degree murder (Sandys McGarrell 1995:189). This report was done at the time of the data I will later discuss was collected, and displays the current general views of the death penalty by the public. This topic relates directly to the lives of citizens of our country, which makes it an incredibly important discussion to have within communities.
English: Total number of executions carried out in...
English: A zoomed in version of File:Executions_in...
An ad from the Ecologist Green Party in Mexico pro...I believe that there may be specific factors involved in an individual's life that either increases or decreases their perspective on the topic. In particular, prior research has found correlations between support for the death penalty, and various aspects of an individual's social environment.
In a study conducted using the general social survey data from 1972 through 1988 McGarrel (1995) found that women were less likely to support the death penalty than men. This relationship is thought to be due to the overall views on crime itself. Studies have lead researchers to predict that men favor more of a classical view on the causes of crime, which is the belief that it is solely the decision of the criminal to commit the crime, while women have a more...