Racial Differences in Death Penalty Support and Opposition

Baker, David; Lambert, Eric G.; Jenkins, Morris

doi:10.1177/0021934704263126

Cited by 37 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In fact, few studies have utilized college samples to investigate death penalty attitudes and those that do typically rely on small convenience samples (e.g. Baker, Lambert, & Jenkins, 2005;Bohm & Vogel, 2004;Jiang, Lambert, & Wang, 2007;Lambert & Clarke, 2001;Schadt & DeLisi, 2007;Vidmar & Dittenhoffer, 1981;Wright, Bohm, & Jamieson, 1995). Compared to general population samples, college student samples may be especially unique.…”

Section: College Studentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the Spectrum of Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty

Worthen

Rodgers

Sharp

2014

Criminal Justice Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Overall, studies show that the majority of Americans support the use of the death penalty for murderers; however, few studies have investigated response patterns to death penalty survey questions that offer more than yes/no response options. Without a realistic understanding of Americans’ attitudes, the existence of this controversial legislation may hinge on inaccurate depictions of public opinion. The current study utilizes a college sample of students from a southern university ( N = 775, average age 22) to investigate how nondichotomous response options affect our understandings of death penalty attitudes. Using independent variables that are commonly found in quantitative studies about death penalty attitudes (i.e., religiosity, biblical literalism, political attitudes, race, gender, age, southern region) as well as independent variables less commonly seen in death penalty studies (i.e., feminist identity, and student-specific variables: grade point average, freshman status, high school size, and sociology major/minor), ordinary least squares and logistic regression results indicate that examining death penalty support with nondichotomous response options reveals more nuanced results when compared to examinations of death penalty that use dichotomous response options. Policy implications are discussed.

show abstract