Over-simplification and error in public opinion surveys on capital punishment
- 1 December 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Justice Quarterly
- Vol. 3 (4) , 429-455
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07418828600089051
Abstract
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).Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Block Crime and Fear: Defensible Space, Local Social Ties, and Territorial FunctioningJournal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1984
- Polling the Attentive PublicThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1984
- The Impact of Polls on Public OpinionThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1984
- The Impact of Polling on the Mass MediaThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1984
- Public Opinion and Capital Punishment: A Close Examination of the Views of Abolitionists and RetentionistsCrime & Delinquency, 1983
- Retributive and utilitarian motives and other correlates of Canadian attitudes toward the death penalty.Canadian Psychologist / Psychologie canadienne, 1974
- Public Opinion regarding Crime, Criminal Justice, and Related TopicsJournal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 1974
- The Polls: Capital PunishmentPublic Opinion Quarterly, 1970