Capital Punishment Support: Exploring the Effects of Race, Gender, and Empathy

• In Event: Capital Punishment: Opinion, Politics, and Juries

Abstract

This study utilized the factorial survey design, a quasi-experimental approach, in an attempt to measure whether a respondent’s level of empathy affected death penalty support. Three hundred undergraduate students were presented with three vignettes in which defendants charged with murder were sentenced to death or facing the death penalty in situations where it was later discovered that evidence presented by a witness (neighbor, cellmate, or crime lab analyst) was unreliable or clearly false. The race and sex of the defendant, the victim, and the witness were randomly assigned. Respondents were asked to rate their feelings and to decide what should happen to the offender. Options included a range from outright release to sentence reduction to execution. Three forms of empathy measures were used, in addition to the feeling questions per vignette. In addition, the effects of known correlates of death penalty support (e.g., race, sex, political party affiliation, religion) were controlled for in this study. Policy implications are discussed.

Authors

• James Hubbell, University of South Florida

• Jordyn Rad, University of South Florida

• Brian D. Godcharles, University of South Florida

• John Cochran, University of South Florida

• Kathleen Heide, University of South Florida

• Eldra P. Solomon, Center for Mental Health