Regional Variation in Student Support Levels for the Death Penalty

• In Event: Attitudes toward Capital Punishment

Abstract

In light of several botched executions that have occurred in recent years, the use of the death penalty has generated more discussion in the media and among criminal justice practitioners, as well as empirical interest among criminologists. The present paper will expand previous research conducted by the authors that examines general student knowledge of botched executions and the impact of this knowledge on their support for the death penalty. The current analyses will afford the authors the ability to the examine and compare student perceptions utilizing data from a state where the use of the death penalty is rare with data from a state where the death penalty is used with more frequency. Specifically, the analysis will be a regional comparison of student perceptions of the fairness of death sentences, the moral justification for the death penalty when considering religious affiliation and political ideology, and justification for its use in light of innocent persons being sentenced to death as well as the botched executions of the recent past.

Authors

• Courtney A. Waid-Lindberg, Northern State University

• Rhonda R Dobbs, Tarleton State University

• Steve Geer, Tarleton State University