for their assistance in conducting the interviews; Steve McKinley and Professors Young Koh, Dualatram Lund and Alexander Weiss for their comments on the statistics, and the anonymous reviewers for the helpful suggestions. Copies of reprints can be obtained from either Maria Sandys,

Recent reports of general favorability toward capital punishment suggest that there is tremendous support for the penalty. Research also suggests, however, that people prefer meaningful alternative sentences and that there is a reluctance to endorse capital punishment for juveniles and defendants who are mentally retarded. Using a quota sampling procedure, 514 Indiana citizens were asked about these specific circumstances surrounding capital punishment and about their support for various goals of sentencing. The results suggest that although general favorability toward capital punishment is quite high (76%), such a result is misleading. Only 9% of general proponents of capital punishment maintain their support for the penalty under all circumstances questioned. Moreover, gender of respondents and support for inmates' right to rehabilitation consistently distinguish between degrees of support for capital punishment. The findings have important implications for practical legal issues, such as the selection of capital jurors, as well as for theoretical issues related to the determinants of punitiveness toward lawbreakers.

The research literature on adjustment by family members to providing care to victims of Alzheimer's disease is new and expanding rapidly. The purpose of this review is to summarize the categories and methods of that research; to evaluate critically the state of knowledge these studies are producing; and to suggest ways of strengthening future investigations. The review is organized around psychological, social, and health factors as antecedents or correlates of similar categories of outcomes for caregivers. While there are some emerging relationships involving caregiver burden, depression, and psychological well-being, it is difficult to generalize about the determinants or correlates of the consequences of meeting caregiver responsibilities; this difficulty probably results from a failure to deal adequately with key concepts and circumstances of the caregiver. These conceptual and methodological shortcomings are discussed and suggestions for refinement made.

No abstract

The current standard for determining juror qualification in cases in which the prosecution is seeking the death penalty was formulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 in Wainwright v. Witt. This standard differs importantly from its predecessor, and requires that prospective jurors be dismissed if their views would prevent or substantially impair their ability to perform their functions as jurors. We assessed respondents according to the criteria imposed by Witt. We also measured independently prospective jurors' abilities to perform the various specific tasks of a capital juror and their disposition to impose the death penally automatically upon defendants convicted of murder punishable by death. Data from 148 respondents, selected randomly from juries on previously tried felony cases, indicated that 28.2% of those includable by the Witt standard would automatically impose the death penalty. Considering all respondents who would be erroneously included or excluded, a total of 36% of the sample showed inconsistencies with the Witt criterion. These findings are discussed in terms of jurors' difficulties in anticipating their roles as capital jurors.