Yet respondents' fear of crime victimization was a better predictor of their willingness to impose the death penalty or to accept mitigating circumstances during the penalty phase of a capital case than their abstract attitudes toward the criminal justice system. Respondents who were 'somewhat' afraid of crime victimization were less likely to support the death penalty than were respondents who were 'very' afraid or 'not' afraid of victimization. These findings indicate that previous research on the death penalty may have been flawed because the wording of the question asked was too abstract and unidimensional. (Author abstract)