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Racial Attitudes and Opinions About Capital Punishment: Preliminary Findings

NCJ Number
175785
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 22 Issue: 1-2 Dated: Spring-Fall 1998 Pages: 131-144
Author(s)
J A Arthur
Date Published
1998
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Data from the General Social Survey from 1974-94 were used to determine whether white persons' support for capital punishment is influenced by racial attitudes toward black people and by perceptions associated with poor and economically disadvantaged groups.
Abstract
The research was prompted by persistent findings in other studies that support for capital punishment is higher among white people than among black people. The research was informed by three theoretical perspectives (consensus-integration, conflict-coercion, and critical race theory), as well as by the literature on stereotypes and prejudice. Independent variables used to measure racial attitudes included whether the participant felt that white persons have the right to segregated neighborhoods and whether the participant brought home a friend who was black for dinner during the last few years. Independent variables focusing on feelings about economically subordinate groups and the role of government in addressing economic conditions included questions on whether government should improve the standard of living of the poor and whether welfare makes people lazy. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that white people's support for the death penalty is partly influenced by racial attitudes and perceptions associated with black people. Findings also revealed that attitudes toward groups of subordinate status and perceptions about the role of government in addressing the social and economic conditions of disadvantaged groups are significantly related to opinions about capital punishment. Table and 36 references (Author abstract modified)