The Nation's Socio-Economic Development and Human Rights Violations: Do State-Sponsored Social Controls Signify Internal Struggles?

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

Even though the international community has been moving towards putting emphasis on the maintenance of human rights, some nations still employ repressive measures against its citizens. This research aims to uncover what is the relationship between several social controls – the use of capital punishment and other human rights violations – and socio-economic and political conditions in the individual countries. Three types of analyses were used in this research on 200 countries and territories around the world. The findings suggest that there are significant relationships between the practical use of the death penalty and some of the socio-economic and political indicators, such as government legitimacy, and regime type. Furthermore, when the repressive measures are considered, all variables of interest show significant relationships in bivariate analyses. The limitations of the study include missing data resulting from the lack of transparency of certain governments. The recommendations for future research consist of the inclusion of additional socio-economic variables, which could improve the measurement of internal struggles of individual countries.

Authors

• Tereza Trejbalova, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Terance Miethe, University of Nevada, Las Vegas