Is the death penalty a deterrent to homicide? Some time series evidence

Police Killings and Capital Punishment: The Post‐furman Period

“…1975;Passell and Taylor, 1975;Yunker, 1976), states (Passell, 1975;Bailey, 1977, 198Oa. 198Ob;Ehrlich, 1917;Forst, 1917Forst, , 1983Black and Orsagh, 1978;McFarland, 1983), and cities (Dann, J935;Savitz, 1958;PhiJlips, 1980;Bailey, 1984a, I 984b), very limited research attention has been devoted to the question, "Does the death penalty provide an added measure of protection for the police in tbe performance of their duties?"…”

“…These limitations are not particular to studies of police killings, but are common to most comparative analyses of the relationship between capital punishment and homicides (of any variety). First, comparisons of neighboring death penalty and abolitionist jurisdictions may not control adequately for various social, economic, demographic, and cultural factors that inHuence homicide rates (van den Haag, 1969;van den Haag and Conrad, 1983;Ehrlich, 1975;lehtinen, 1977;Yunker, 1976Yunker, , 1982aYunker, , 1982b. Consequently, such studies may not isolate successfuUy the possible deterrent effect of the death penalty.…”

The political economy of capital punishment

“…For example, a study by Yunker produced the rather startling result that one execution would deter no less than 156 murders. 6 Cloninger found evidence which endorsed the deterrence findings of both Ehrlich and Yunker, and has more recently been led to conclude that the literature has produced two clear results, namely that 'no longer can it be said that no evidence exists of a deterrent effect of executions' and 'no longer is there a dearth of controversy or debate on the evidence.' 7 An important paper by Chressanthis served to identify significant deterrent effects from capital punishment, to confirm the underlying theoretical framework employed by economists, and to upgrade and update the US data to cover the period 1965-85.…”

Social science in supreme court death penalty cases: Citation practices and their implications

“…When the Supreme Court rejected a per se challenge to the constitutionality of capital punishment in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), it apparently laid to rest once and for all the judicial consideration of evidence on deterrence. After that decision the research evidence concerning the deterrent efficacy of the death penalty faded altogether from Supreme Court opinions in the study, lz Almost all of the social science evidence cited on the issue of the future dangerousness of capital offenders, or otherwise related 10 Some studies found evidence that the death penalty is a more effective deterrent to murder than the alternative sanction of long-term incarceration (e.g., Ehrlich 1975;Layson 1985;Phillips 1980;Yunker 1976). A National Academy of Sciences review that was undertaken while Gre~ v. ~o.~ (1976) was pending concluded that "It]he deterrent effect of capital punishment is definitely not a settled matter, and that is the strongest social scientific conclusion that can be reached at the present time" (Klein, Forst, and Filatov 1978:359).…”