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Not everyone strongly supports the death penalty: Assessing weakly-held attitudes about capital punishment

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Abstract

Polls exploring attitudes toward the death penalty typically impose a simple, dichotomous response structure: respondents are asked whether or not they support or oppose capital punishment. This polling strategy deprives respondents of expressing an indication of the strength of their opinions. When asked whether they support (or oppose) the death penalty “strongly” or “not strongly,” significant proportions of respondents select the latter category. This suggests that many proponents and opponents of the death penalty have weakly-held views regarding the issue. These respondents are of great interest because they are the individuals most likely to change their views. This article analyzes responses to two national surveys in order to explore the variables that differentiate respondents with strongly-held and weakly-held views. A theoretical account is offered to explain why some people have weakly-held views on this critical social issue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Radford University, 24142, Radford, VA

    James D. Unnever

  2. University of Cincinnati, USA

    Francis T. Cullen

  3. University of Oxford, USA

    Julian V. Roberts

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  1. James D. Unnever
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  2. Francis T. Cullen
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  3. Julian V. Roberts
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Correspondence to James D. Unnever.

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Unnever, J.D., Cullen, F.T. & Roberts, J.V. Not everyone strongly supports the death penalty: Assessing weakly-held attitudes about capital punishment. Am J Crim Just 29, 187–216 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02885735

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