Attitudes toward capital punishment: Educational, demographic, and neighborhood crime influences

Maggard, Scott R.; Payne, Brian K.; Chappell, Allison T.

doi:10.1016/j.soscij.2011.08.016

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Yet, it should be noted that additional analyses (not included) showed that when the effect of other variables was not taken into account, the proportion of women who expressed support for the death penalty (55%) was significantly lower ( χ 2 = 148.787; p < .001) than the proportion of males (77%) who favored capital punishment. Consistent with prior research conducted in Japan (Alston, 1976) and elsewhere (Fox et al., 1991; Maggard et al., 2012), younger respondents were significantly more likely to express disagreement with death penalty. Moreover, persons younger than 30 years old were less likely to have ambivalent opinions about death penalty.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Specifically, research conducted in United States found that authoritarianism, dogmatism, conservative views regarding various social issues (cf. Tyler and Weber, 1982), and/or racial prejudice (Maggard et al., 2012) generally predict support for capital punishment. Yet, as Stack (2004: 71) noted, the constructs used in previous US studies (e.g., symbolic orientations such as fundamentalism and authoritarianism) may prove to be less useful as explanatory tools in other nations.…”

Section: Explaining Variations In Death Penalty Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public opinion and the death penalty in Japan

Andreescu

Hughes

2020

Punishment & Society

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Based on the Japanese General Social Survey conducted in 2010 on a representative sample of adults, the present analysis intends to identify the factors more likely to predict variations in death penalty attitudes in Japan. Compared to death penalty proponents, those who oppose capital punishment are less likely to express punitive attitudes in general and to be dissatisfied with government expenditures on crime control. Relative to retentionists, abolitionists tend to have a higher level of social trust, show a higher level of support for public participation in the criminal justice process, are more likely to practice a religion, and are younger. Instrumental factors, such as victimization and fear of crime, symbolic factors, such as institutional trust, trust in the judiciary, and the police, as well as gender do not differentiate death penalty opponents from supporters. The results of the multinomial logistic regression show that residents who did not express agreement or disagreement with the death penalty have more in common with those who oppose capital punishment than with those who favor it. Although the majority of the population (65.2%) expressed support for death penalty, one in four respondents (26.1%) remained ambivalent regarding the use of capital punishment. Additionally, most of those who expressed an opinion (50.5%) said they would hesitate to recommend death, if chosen to serve in the newly instituted citizen judge system. Findings suggest that public support for death penalty is not as strong in the country as the Japanese government claims and that it requires further exploration.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Explaining Variations In Death Penalty Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public opinion and the death penalty in Japan

Andreescu

Hughes

2020

Punishment & Society

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“…Beyond other religious beliefs, demographic factors are associated with death penalty attitudes. Specifically, higher rates of death penalty support tend to be found in males (Cochran & Sanders, 2009), Whites (Britt, 1998;Unnever & Cullen, 2007), older adults (Maggard, Payne, & Chappell, 2012), and conservatives or republicans (Britt, 1998;Unnever & Cullen, 2006). Thus, it is critical to control for these factors as well.…”

Section: Religious Fundamentalism and Evaluations Of Aggravating And mentioning

confidence: 99%

Death penalty decision‐making: Fundamentalist beliefs and the evaluation of aggravating and mitigating circumstances

Yelderman

West

Miller

2018

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose Jurors’ religious characteristics are related to death penalty attitudes and verdicts. Jurors’ religious characteristics might also relate to endorsements of aggravating circumstances (aggravators) and mitigating circumstances (mitigators)—factors that make a defendant more or less deserving of the death penalty, respectively. The purpose of this research was to assess the extent to which religious fundamentalism was related to endorsement and weighing of aggravators and mitigators and subsequent death penalty decisions while controlling for relevant religious and demographic characteristics. Methods Two studies were conducted. Study 1 included a regression analysis in which participants filled out religious and demographic measures via an online survey. In Study 2, participants acted as mock jurors in a death penalty trial in which the defendant was already found guilty. Mock jurors read the case facts and attorney arguments and then weighed aggravators and mitigators before recommending a sentence for the defendant. Results In Study 1, fundamentalism negatively predicted mitigator endorsement, intrinsic religiosity negatively predicted aggravator endorsement, and orthodoxy positively predicted aggravator endorsement. In Study 2, fundamentalism was related to death penalty sentences, and this was mediated by people's weighing of aggravators and mitigators. Specifically, fundamentalism was related to a lower likelihood of choosing a life sentence because fundamentalism was negatively related to weighing mitigators over aggravators. Conclusions Results support and explain prior research linking fundamentalism with punitiveness in death penalty cases. Such findings support the “eye for an eye” punishment philosophy associated with fundamentalist beliefs. Theoretical and legal implications are discussed.

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“…It was important to control for age in this diverse, non-student sample because previous research supports a curvilinear association between age and persuasion in the United States, with individuals in middle age being the most resistant to change (Eaton, Visser, Krosnick, & Anand, 2009; Visser & Krosnick, 1998). Controlling for participant race was also important because race has long been related to attitudes and attitude strength toward capital punishment (e.g., Maggard, Payne, & Chappell, 2012; Unnever & Cullen, 2007).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To increase generalizability, future research should expand the types of gender-neutral attitude issues used to examine the effect of gender on persuasion. In addition, while many studies have failed to find an effect of participant gender on attitudes toward the death penalty (e.g., Maggard et al, 2012), some have found slightly more support for the death penalty from men than women (e.g., Applegate, Cullen, & Fisher, 2002). However, this is not a major concern for the current study for several reasons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Gender-Role Salience Influences Attitude Strength and Persuasive Message Processing

Eaton

Visser

Burns

2017

Psychology of Women Quarterly

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We conducted three studies to examine the relationship between gender and persuasion. We tested the notion that making gender roles salient affects the strength of individuals' attitudes and the way they respond to persuasive information. In Studies 1 and 2, we found that priming women with the female gender role reduced the strength of their attitudes (Study 1, N ¼ 50) and increased their susceptibility to persuasion through a low-thought process (Study 2, N ¼ 98). In Study 3, we manipulated the salience of both the female and male gender roles among men and women and assessed persuasion to a counter-attitudinal message (N ¼ 185). We found that the female and male primes affected men and women similarly, with the female prime causing participants to process messages superficially and the male prime leading to thoughtful message processing. These findings help to explain women's slightly greater persuadability in meta-analyses and provide evidence of harms that stereotypes about women can cause. Moving forward, we urge researchers to be wary of gender salience in the research context, especially when conducting persuasion research.

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Attitudes toward capital punishment: Educational, demographic, and neighborhood crime influences

Cited by 21 publications

References 52 publications

Public opinion and the death penalty in Japan

Public opinion and the death penalty in Japan

Death penalty decision‐making: Fundamentalist beliefs and the evaluation of aggravating and mitigating circumstances

How Gender-Role Salience Influences Attitude Strength and Persuasive Message Processing

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