Deterrence and the Death Penalty
Publication year:
2012
| Cataloged on:
Oct. 10, 2012
ANNOTATION: The impact of capital punishment on the homicide rate is examined. Chapters following a summary are: introduction to the current debate; capital punishment in the post-Gregg era—the 1976 Supreme Court decision to end the moratorium on executions; determining the deterrent effect of capital punishment—key issues—concepts of deterrence, sanction regimes, data issues, variations in murder rates, reciprocal effects between homicide rates and sanction regimes; panel studies reviewed—the studies, characteristics, and effects found; time-series studies; and challenges to identifying deterrent effects. The National Research Council’s Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty “concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates. Therefore, the committee recommends that these studies not be used to inform deliberations requiring judgments about the effect of the death penalty on homicide. Consequently, claims that research demonstrates that capital punishment decreases or increases the homicide rate by a specified amount or has no effect on the homicide rate should not influence policy judgments about capital punishment” (p. 2).
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