A study and public opinion on capital punishment
Author
Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha School of Law, Saveetha Institute of Medical and
Technical Sciences (SIMATS),
Saveetha University.
Chennai 600 077
Mail id : [email protected]
phone : 9025638635
Co-author:
Ms.Jayapreethi M.Sc., B.Ed., ML., Ph.D (Pursuing)
Assistant Professor
Saveetha School of
Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences
Email id: [email protected]
Author: HARIHASHINI
Co-author: Ms.Jayapreethi
A study and public opinion on capital punishment in India
Capital punishment remains a contentious issue globally, with debates centered on its ethics,
efficacy, and application. This study investigates public opinion on capital punishment, exploring
the complexities of attitudes, beliefs, and factors influencing perspectives. A mixed-methods
approach combines surveys (n=1,500) and focus groups (n=60) to gather data.
[19:16, 29/08/2024] HarihashiniMurugadoss IAS: This study examines public opinion on capital
punishment, exploring the complexities of attitudes, beliefs, and factors influencing
perspectives. A mixed-methods approach reveals divided public opinion, with 52% supporting
and 41% opposing capital punishment. Key factors influencing opinions include moral and
ethical beliefs, fear of crime, trust in the justice system, and personal experiences. The study
highlights the dynamic nature of public opinion, with attitudes shifting based on contextual
factors and information. The findings have significant implications for policymakers, advocacy
groups, and public discourse, underscoring the need for nuanced understanding and informed
discussion.
A study and public opinion on capital punishment
Introduction
Capital punishment in India is a legal penalty for some crimes under the country's main
substantive penal legislation, In 1973, when the CrPC was amended further, life imprisonment
became the norm and the death penalty was to be imposed only in exceptional cases,
particularly if a heinous crime committed deems the perpetrator too dangerous to even be
'considered' for paroled release into society after 20 years The Supreme Court’s decision to
frame uniform norms for trial courts in awarding the death sentence is a welcome intervention.
This is a case that a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit had taken up on
its own convict had faced trauma earlier in life, family circumstances, psychological evaluation of
a convict and post-conviction conduct, were relevant factors at the time of considering whether
the death penalty ought to be imposed upon the accused”.factors other than the gravity of the
crime or the culpability of the offender appear to affect death sentences, including race,
geography, gender, access to adequate counsel, and jury misperceptions. the Supreme Court of
India acquitted nearly 55% of the death row prisoners (six prisoners) in the cases it heard in
2023.Twenty countries executed people in 2022, compared with 18 in 2021. Apart from China,
the countries which executed the most people were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US.
Amnesty says it recorded at least three public executions in Iran in 2022.
Objective:
1. To determine public support or opposition to capital punishment.
2. To identify reasons for supporting or opposing capital punishment.
3. To understand the factors that influence opinions on capital punishment.
4. To compare opinions on capital punishment across different groups (e.g., age, gender,
political affiliation).
5. To assess the impact of capital punishment on crime rates and public safety.
Review of literature
1.Author: Sana Hund , Haris Umar
Title: Abolition of capital punishment in India
DOI : 10.38157/ss.v412.517
December 2022
The light of international legal developments which stand against the death penalty, India's
judiciary has also emphasized the alternative modes of punishment. It has been shown that
there has always been a global tendency to limit the crimes that carry the death sentence. Most
nations have either done away with capital punishment altogether or limited its use to just the
most serious offenses. Eliminating the death penalty is seen as more of a moral issue than a
legal one. In light of the recent NCRB findings and the Report on the death penalty, the debate
over whether or not India should abolish the death penalty for capital crimes has been reignited.
There has been a decline in the use of the death penalty in India since the country gained its
independence in 1947
2.Author: Sourabh Batar
Title: Review of capital punishment
DOI: 10.5958/2278-4853.2021.01142.3
Journal: Asian Journal of multidimensional
Capital Punishment is a weapon that may be utilized to instill a feeling of discipline in our
country and demonstrate to other democratic nations that our country believes in a disciplined
approach to development
3.Attitudes on Policy and Punishment:
Opposition to Inequality-Based Government
Aid Predicts Support for Capital Punishment
● July 2024
● International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 13:172-183
● 13:172-183
DOI:10.6000/1929-4409.2024.13.15
There exists a well-developed body of research on the attitudinal correlates of support for capital
punishment. Among the most robust of these is racism and racial attributions. The study presented
here was designed to explore whether policy prescriptions reflective of racial attitudes can predict
support for capital punishment.
4.The Perception about Effectiveness of
Capital Punishment as A Determining Factor
in Punjab
● January 2024
● Khaldunia - Journal of Social Sciences 3(1):85-91
● 3(1):85-91
DOI:10.36755/khaldunia.v3i1.76
There was an inverse relationship between reasons to oppose capital punishment and perceived
effectiveness of capital punishment. The multi regression analysis revealed a strong association of
awareness about punishment, crimes against person, crime against state and reasons to support
capital punishment with effectiveness of capital
5.The Racial Justice Dilemma: Examining the
Enforcement of Capital Punishment in
Contemporary Legal Systems
● March 2024
● 1(1):29-37
DOI:10.62568/jomn.v1i1.111
Although legal principles mandate justice and equality before the law, the enforcement of capital
punishment often reflects glaring racial imbalance. This study analyzes the factors causing racial
disparities in the application of capital punishment, as well as its impact on public trust in the legal
system. The research also investigates various reform efforts that have been proposed or
implemented to address the issue of racial justice in the enforcement of capital punishment.
Referring to various reports, studies, and official sources from Indonesia, it can be concluded that
urgent reforms are needed to address this dilemma. Measures such as racial awareness training for
legal professionals, increased access to legal aid, and a review of law enforcement policies are key
to improving racial justice and rebuilding public trust in the justice system. Thus, this analysis not
only provides a deeper understanding of racial justice issues in the context of capital punishment in
Indonesia but also highlights the efforts needed to create a fairer, more inclusive legal system
respected by all members of society.
6.Review of Capital Punishment
● December 2021
● Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research 10(12):422-427
● 10(12):422-427
DOI:10.5958/2278-4853.2021.01142.3
Over the last several years, capital punishment has been the most contentious issue. There are
many reasons in favor of capital punishment, as well as numerous ones against it. The legal power
to murder an offender for breaking a law is known as capital punishment. In Britain, the first death
sentence statutes were enacted in the eighteenth century B.C. for 25 separate offenses. In India, this
practice has been condemned in recent years due to the country's legal and moral standards. The
primary goal of this article is to demonstrate the importance of death punishment in today's society.
This article focuses on the arguments in favor of capital punishment and shows how the benefits of
this method exceed the disadvantages. The purpose of this article is to focus on the significance and
effect of capital punishment in society. The topic of death punishment's need in society has been left
for future study in this article.
7.Capital Punishment in Bangladesh: Rethink
to Revise in Comparison with Modern World
Capital punishment is the highest punishment which is executed in so many countries all over the
world. We are noticing that this is practicing mostly in Middle East countries and Asia. There are
some countries that they have eliminated this penalty by their enactment and some other have not
abandoned it by their act of parliament but they are not practicing death execution. Bangladesh is
one of these countries where capital punishment is executing by the enactment. Still this capital
punishment is the last resort when the parliament pass any law and this is the violation of the 2nd
Optional Protocol of ICCPR those was adopted and promulgated the Resolution of 44/128 on 15
December, 1989 regarding the abolition of death penalty.
8.Public Opinion and the French Capital
Punishment Debate of 1908
● August 2014
● Law and History Review 32(03):575-609
● 32(03):575-609
DOI:10.1017/S0738248014000236
Academics have traditionally associated capital punishment most closely with authoritarian regimes.
They have assumed an incompatibility between the death penalty and the presumably humane
values of modern liberal democracy. However, recent scholarship on the United States by David
Garland has suggested that a considerable degree of direct democratic control over a justice system
actually tends to favor the retention and application of the death penalty. The reason why the United
States has retained capital punishment after it has been abolished in other Western nations is not
because public opinion is more supportive of the death penalty in America than in Europe or in
Canada. Rather, it is because popular control over the justice system is greater in the United States
than in other countries and this strengthens the influence of America's retentionist majority. However,
the experience of the United States in this regard has not been unique. The same link between
democratic control and retention of the death penalty can be seen in the history of the effort to
abolish capital punishment in France. In 1908, a bill in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of
the French Parliament) to abolish capital punishment was defeated, in large part because of strong
opposition from the public. In 1981, majority public opinion in France still favored retention of the
death penalty, but in that year, the nation's Parliament defied popular sentiment and outlawed the
ultimate punishment. Historians have so far provided little insight into why abolition succeeded in
1981 when it failed in 1908. The explanation for the different outcome appears to have been the
greater degree of influence public opinion exerted over the nation's justice system at the turn of the
twentieth century than at its end.
9.The Multi-Layered Impact of Public Opinion
on Capital Punishment Implementation in the
American States
● December 2000
● Political Research Quarterly 53(4)
● 53(4)
DOI:10.2307/449260
Four traditional models linking public opinion with government policies are found to form one
combined, historical chain with opinion and policies intertwined over time. The traditional simple
majority rule model takes a short-term approach to representation. A reverse linkage, with policies
shaping opinion, extends the causal model backwards in time, as does an incrementalism and
institutional lag model. The importance of this historical chain model is demonstrated in explaining
crossstate differences in death penalty sentencing rates in the 1990s. Current public opinion does
influence death penalty sentencing rates, but so does political culture. Past public opinion has an
indirect influence on current punishment rates through the influence of past opinion on past policies.
The presence of a prior capital punishment law provides a legitimization effect, resulting in greater
support for the death penalty among a state's population. Without an extended causal chain
approach, the interrelationships between public opinion and government policies cannot be fully
appreciated.
10.The nexus between attribution theory and
racial attitudes: a test of racial attribution and
public opinion of capital punishment
● August 2018
● Criminal Justice Studies 31(126):1-16
● 31(126):1-16
DOI:10.1080/1478601X.2018.1509859
Research has shown that attribution theory and racial attitudes are among the most consistent
attitudinal predictors of capital punishment opinion. This study explores the overlap of these two
constructs, racial attribution, and its ability to account for support and opposition to the death penalty.
Using data from the 1972–2016 cumulative data file of the General Social Survey, three logistic
regression models were used to analyze the effect of internal and external racial attribution on
capital punishment opinions for (a) the aggregate sample, (b) White respondents only, and (c) Black
respondents only. Respondents were asked whether racial inequalities were due to structural
disadvantages or personal deficiencies of Black Americans. Findings showed that respondents in all
three models were more likely to support the death penalty when they attributed racial inequalities to
personal deficiencies of Blacks and less likely to support the death penalty when they endorsed
structural disadvantages, although the effects were somewhat muted for Black respondents. These
findings suggest that ongoing public support for capital punishment in the United States is based at
least in part on a fundamental attribution error in which Whites and some Blacks alike blame Blacks
for their own deprivation.
Research has shown that attribution theory and racial attitudes are among the most consistent
attitudinal predictors of capital punishment opinion. This study explores the overlap of these two
constructs, racial attribution, and its ability to account for support and opposition to the death penalty.
Using data from the 1972–2016 cumulative data file of the General Social Survey, three logistic
regression models were used to analyze the effect of internal and external racial attribution on
capital punishment opinions for (a) the aggregate sample, (b) White respondents only, and (c) Black
respondents only. Respondents were asked whether racial inequalities were due to structural
disadvantages or personal deficiencies of Black Americans. Findings showed that respondents in all
three models were more likely to support the death penalty when they attributed racial inequalities to
personal deficiencies of Blacks and less likely to support the death penalty when they endorsed
structural disadvantages, although the effects were somewhat muted for Black respondents. These
findings suggest that ongoing public support for capital punishment in the United States is based at
least in part on a fundamental attribution error in which Whites and some Blacks alike blame Blacks
for their own deprivation.
11.Capital punishment and its influence on
criminality: Theory, practice and public
opinion
● January 2014, V.A Tirraen
Having analyzed the findings of Russian and foreign research the author concludes that the
efficiency of capital punishment as a preventative measure is imaginary. The paper contains
statistical data that prove this conclusion; the public opinion on capital punishment has also been
studied.
12.Capital Punishment and Public Opinion in the
Post-Furman Era: Trends and Analysis
● April 1992
● Sociological Spectrum 12(2):127-144
● 12(2):127-144
DOI:10.1080/02732173.1992.9981992
Authors:
M. Dwayne Smith
● University of South Florida
James D. Wright
● University of Central Florida
An analysis of public opinion polls shows a pronounced trend of increased support for the use of
capital punishment since this sanction's ban and subsequent reinstatement in the 1970s. This
support is frequently cited in political arenas as justification for the retention of this criminal justice
practice despite its rejection by virtually all other culturally and economically similar societies.
However, further examination of data from the General Social Surveys reveals that this trend is best
understood in terms of a solidifying of support for capital punishment among whites, whose
expressed approval is now nearly uniform across sociodemographic categories and has reached
unprecedented heights during the late 1980s. Reasons for the racial nature of support for capital
punishment are explored, and new areas of research are suggested as avenues of gaining further
insight into the continuation of what has become a particularly unique criminal justice policy.
13.The Misperception of Public Opinion
Toward Capital Punishment: Examining The
Spuriousness Explanation of Death Penalty
Support
● February 1996
● American Behavioral Scientist 39(4):500-513
● 39(4):500-513
DOI:10.1177/0002764296039004012
Authors:
Edmund F. McGarrell
Maria Sandys
Appellate courts in the United States, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have looked to public
opinion and legislative trends to interpret the meaning of “evolving standards of decency” in
determining whether capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and
unusual punishment. Bowers's spuriousness explanation of public support for capital punishment
suggests that lawmakers and appellate judges have misinterpreted public sentiment. Specifically,
although the public voices general support for the death penalty, that support vanishes when citizens
are given the option of life in prison without possibility of parole coupled with a requirement of work
and restitution. This research tests and finds support for Bowers's explanation with data from a
sample of Indiana citizens. In addition, the study extends the model by presenting data from Indiana
legislators showing that indeed lawmakers do misread the opinions of their constituents on this
important issue.
14.THE POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT POLICY:
DETERRENCE vs. PUBLIC OPINION
Authors:
Silvia M. Mendes
The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of the adoption and commitment to
the death penalty in a given State. A State may have the penalty because it serves as a deterrent or
perhaps because it represents the just deserts for capital crimes; or maybe both. This paper
explores three overall hypotheses: the "need" or deterrence hypothesis, the "desire" hypothesis, and
the combination of both. Using a policy analysis framework, I run logit analyses for the pre-Furman
and post- Furman periods in the US to test my hypotheses. Finding evidence that death penalty
statutes are the result of legislative response to the murder rate and the publicsentiment towards the
death penalty, I conduct and discuss a case application of these findings and conclude that public
opinion in favor of capital punishment is relevant but not sufficient for adopting, readopting, or
keeping the death penalty. Regardless of whether policymakers believe in the deterrent force of
capital punishment to reduce violent crime, they rely on the need for it to justify its adoption or
readoption.
15.Over-simplification and error in public
opinion surveys on capital punishment
● December 1986
● Justice Quarterly 3(4):429-455
● 3(4):429-455
DOI:10.1080/07418828600089051
Authors:
Philip W. Harris
● Temple University
Public opinion polls have shown a marked increase in support for capital punishment. Results of a
recent poll, which resulted from collaboration between the author and Associated Press, further
clarify published findings of public opinion polls and challenge the common wisdom that support for
the death penalty is increasing. It was found that only 12 percent of those polled opposed the death
penalty in all cases, that 57 percent advocated its use under some circumstances and that 27
percent supported the death penalty for all murder cases. These findings differ little from those
reported by Louis Harris in 1973 (Bedau 1982).
16.Retention or Abolition of the Death Penalty
and Public Opinion on the Death Penalty
● October 2023
● Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media 14(1):53-58
● 14(1):53-58
DOI:10.54254/2753-7048/14/20230935
Authors: Ke Wang
The discussion on the death penaltys retention or repeal has been going on for a long time, and
there are different views on the retention and elimination of the death punishment. Despite the
international trend toward abolition, certain countries, like China, Japan, and the United States,
continue to use the death sentence, and all three countries have conducted public opinion surveys
on the abolition of the death sentence, and public opinion has a certain influence on the death
penalty reform. This article will compare the views of Beccaria and Bentham, the representatives of
abolitionism, and Kant and Hegel, the representatives of capital punishment retention, review the
outcomes of popular opinion surveys on capital punishment in China, the United States, and Japan,
analyze the characteristics of public opinion, and discuss the interaction between capital punishment
retention and abolition and public opinion. The study about the value of public views in terms of the
death sentence reform is of reference significance to the issue of whether the death penalty should
be retained or abolished.
17.The age of death: Appraising public
opinion of juvenile capital punishment
● February 2003
● Journal of Criminal Justice 31(2):169-183
● 31(2):169-183
DOI:10.1016/S0047-2352(02)00223-4
Authors: Brenda L Vogel
Despite its original purpose to protect and rehabilitate wayward children, the juvenile system has
grown more punitive and has embraced the use of harsher punishments, including execution, for
juvenile offenders. Relatively little is known, however, about public attitudes toward the use of capital
punishment for juveniles. This research explored the determinants of death penalty opinion,
identified the minimum age at which respondents were willing to allow a juvenile to be put to death
and examined the willingness of respondents to support an alternative sentence of life without the
possibility of parole (LWOP). The results suggested that, while one-quarter of the sample was willing
to execute juveniles who were fifteen and under at the time of the crime, there was less support for
the execution of juveniles than of adults. In addition, of those who supported the use of the death
penalty for juveniles, almost one-half would support LWOP as an alternative to the death penalty.
18.Life and death as public policy: Capital
punishment and abortion in american political
opinion
● March 1991
● International Journal of Public Opinion Research 3(1):32-52
● 3(1):32-52
DOI:10.1093/ijpor/3.1.32
Authors:
William J. M. Claggett
Byron Shafer
● University of Wisconsin–Madison
Recent decisions of the US Supreme Court, in returning to the issues of capital punishment and
abortion, have simultaneously expanded the potential for public opinion on these issues to have an
impact on public policy. This article considers the distribution of the available combinations of
attitudes toward issues of the institutionalized taking (or preservation) of human life, both in the
general American public and in subgroups which combine these opinions in distinctive fashion.
These patterns are then compared to attitudes among partisan political activists, suggesting a further
set of recurring, élite-mass tensions. Finally, the resulting tensions and cross-pressures are
examined for their relationship to the presidential vote in 1984 and 1980.
19.Alternative facts’: Public opinion surveys
on the death penalty for drug offences in
selected Asian countries
● May 2021
● International Journal of Drug Policy 92(1):103155
● 92(1):103155
DOI:10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103155
Authors: Giada Girelli
Background in recent years, many Asian countries have witnessed an intensification in populist
discourses identifying the death penalty as a central tool of drug control, with public opinion surveys
referred to as invaluable evidence of public support for the death penalty. This paper will address the
claim that the public supports capital punishment, and the role of surveys in shaping this discourse.
Methods review of thirty-nine public opinion surveys on the death penalty carried out in five Asian
countries which retain the death penalty for drugs or are considering re-introducing it. The review
was conducted by analysing and comparing design, methodology, findings, and the relationship
between these elements. Results all but two surveys recorded a majoritarian support for the death
penalty, driven by beliefs in (a) deterrent effect of the death penalty, and (b) perfect justice – both
disproven. Complex surveys found a low intensity of support, and a limited interest and knowledge
by the public in capital punishment. Support for capital punishment is lower for drug offences
specifically, and it decreases significantly when expressed with reference to real-life cases. Limited
data suggest that the public in the focus countries has reservations on the effectiveness of the death
penalty to reduce drug offences, and prefers a discretionary system of punishment. The analysis
also revealed correlations between the framing of survey questions and their findings. Conclusion
Public opinion surveys conducted in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand
suggest that the public knows little and has little interest in the death penalty. Although majoritarian,
its support is based on a faulty understanding of key facts related to capital punishment, and an
increase in knowledge is correlated to a decrease in support. More rigorous polling exercises
demonstrate that public support for capital punishment – both in general and for drug offences
specifically – is instinctive, abstract, elastic, and contextual.
20.Review of Roger Hood and Surya Deva
(Eds), Confronting Capital Punishment in
Asia: Human Rights, Politics, and Public
Opinion
● January 2014
● Asian Journal of Criminology 10(3)
● 10(3)
DOI:10.1007/s11417-014-9192-8
Authors: Michael L. Radelet
This is an important book. With the Johnson and Zimring (2009)book of a few years back, it is one of
the two most eye-opening books on the death penalty in Asia ever published. Anyone interested in
the worldwide movement away from executions will be glad to have a copy in his or her hands.The
volume is edited by Roger Hood, emeritus professor at Oxford and unquestionably among the top
death penalty scholars in the world, and Surya Deva, a law professor at the City University of Hong
Kong. Included are 14 original chapters written by an all-star cast of 15 authors. Earlier drafts of the
papers were presented at a conference in Hong Kong in 2011.The chapters are divided into four
sections: “Situating Asia in an International Human Rights Context,” “The Progress So Far,” “Public
Opinion and Death Penalty Reform,” and “The Politics of Capital Punishment in Practice.” Four of
the chapters focus on China, three on India, two on Japan, one on Singapore, and four on issues
that can be applied.
Conclusion:
"In conclusion, this study reveals a complex and divided public opinion on capital
punishment. While a majority of respondents support capital punishment, a significant
minority opposes it. The findings highlight the importance of moral and ethical beliefs, fear of
crime, and trust in the justice system in shaping public opinion. Additionally, demographic
factors such as age, gender, and political affiliation influence opinions on capital punishment.
The study also suggests that public opinion is not fixed and can shift based on contextual
factors and information. Ultimately, this research underscores the need for nuanced and
informed public discourse on capital punishment, taking into account the multifaceted nature
of public opinion."
