Religion, punitive justice, and support for the death penalty

The enduring racial divide in death penalty support

“…There was a sizable body of research that established a substantial association between affiliation in a fundamentalist Protestant faith group (and/or the holding of fundamentalists beliefs) and support for capital punishment (Barkan & Cohn, 1994;Britt, 1998;Grasmick, Bursik, & Blackwell, 1993;Grasmick, Cochran, Bursik, & Kimpel, 1993;Grasmick, Davenport, Chamlin, & Bursik, 1992;Young, 1992). A more recent and emergent body of research, however, asserted that this association might hold primarily, if not exclusively, for Whites.…”

“…Conversely, those who stressed the causal role of environmental factors were said to adopt a situational attribution style which mitigated offender blame and culpability and justified a response to criminal offending that stressed treatment and rehabilitation. Numerous studies found support for attribution theory (Carroll, 1978;Carroll & Payne, 1977;Carroll, Perkowitz, Lurigio, & Weaver, 1987;Graham, Weiner, & Zucker, 1997;Hawkins, 1981;Lurigio, Carroll, & Stalans, 1994;Shaver, 1975) and a growing body of literature linked attribution styles to death penalty support (Cochran et al, 2003;Cullen, Clark, Cullen, & Mathers, 1985;Grasmick, Bursik, & Blackwell, 1993;Grasmick, Bursik, & Kimpel, 1991;Grasmick, Cochran et al, 1993;Grasmick et al, 1992;Grasmick & McGill, 1994;Young, 1991).…”

Personal and Vicarious Experience with the Criminal Justice System as a Predictor of Punitive Sentencing Attitudes

“…With regard to gender, the majority of studies conducted in this area have found that women hold less punitive sentencing attitudes than males. Women are more likely to oppose capital punishment than males in general, and are less supportive of the death penalty for juvenile and adult offenders (Applegate, Cullen, Fisher & Vander Ven, 2000;Applegate, Wright, Dunaway, Cullen, & Wooldredge, 1993;Grasmick, Cochran, Bursik, & Kimpel, 1993;Halim & Stiles, 2001;Keil & Vito, 1991;Kelley & Braithwaite, 1990;Moon, Wright, Cullen, & Pealer, 2000;Robbers, 2006;Sandys & McGarrell, 1995;Skovron, Scott, & Cullen, 1989;Unnever & Cullen, 2005;Vogel & Vogel, 2003;Young, 1992;Zeisel & Gallup, 1989). Additionally, females tend to endorse the idea of treatment over punishment of offenders (Applegate, Cullen, & Fisher, 2002;Cullen, Clark, Cullen, & Mathers, 1985).…”

“…For example, Buckler, Davila, and Salinas (2008) found that Whites hold more punitive attitudes regarding punishment compared to African-Americans, and AfricanAmericans tend to be less supportive of the death penalty than Whites. According to Vogel and Vogel (2003), support for capital punishment among Whites only applied to adult offenders, not juveniles (see also Moon et al, 2000); however Grasmick et al (1993) found that Whites were equally supportive of the death penalty for adult and juvenile offenders. Unnever and Cullen (2007b) speculated that White support for the death penalty may be due to what they called "White racism" (see also Unnever & Cullen, 2010).…”

Capital punishment preferences for special offender populations

“…Nevertheless, differences in the level of death penalty support were found for respondents' race (Young, 1991), income (Bohm, 1998;Zeisel & Gallup, 1989), gender (Bohm, 1991, p. 123), political ideology (Bedau, 1997;Fox, Radelet, & Bonsteel, 1991), religious affiliation and personal religiosity (Grasmick, Bursik, & Blackwell, 1993;Grasmick, Cochran, Bursik, & Kimpel, 1993;Grasmick, Davenport, Chamlin, & Bursik, 1992), and region of the country (Bohm, 1991, p. 127;Borg, 1997). Crime victims (Borg, 1997, p. 36;Kaminer, 1995) and those who feared crime (Thomas & Foster, 1975) were also more likely to support the death penalty.…”