University of Nebraska professors investigate support of death penalty

The majority of citizens in the United States still support the death penalty, but the amount of people who support the punishment has decreased in past years, according to research studied by University of Nebraska professors.

Criminology and criminal justice professor Amy Anderson from the University of Nebraska Omaha and professor of sociology Philip Schwadel from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln worked together to analyze the demographics of people who support the death penalty and to find out why the amount of support has changed.

The professors looked over data collected in the past decades by the General Social Survey. They discovered the demographics of a person can influence their opinion. Crime rates also affect whether a person supports the death penalty.

In the 1980s and 1990s during the American crack epidemic more people supported the death penalty, according to the data analyzed.

Additionally, research showed an individual’s religion, political affiliation, gender or race can also affect their opinion. Catholics were less likely to support the punishment compared to non-Catholics, and males were more likely to support the death penalty.

The white population was the most favorable for the death penalty, and Republicans showed more support than non-Republicans.

Anderson and Schwadel also discovered that age affects people’s opinion of the death penalty. People who are younger were not as supportive. Middle-aged people tended to be more so, until ages 50-55 when individuals became less supportive of the punishment.

“There’s a hypothesis that as you get older, you become more conservative,” Anderson said in a Nebraska Today press release. “This suggests that’s true to a certain age, and then it trends back down.”

According to a Nebraska Today news release, the researchers thought middle-aged people were more likely to support the death penalty because of their ethics and their desire to protect their families.

“We found robust age effects, but not generational effects,” Schwadel said in a Nebraska Today press release. “Generation doesn’t matter a lot, but age and time period matter a lot.”

Source: The Daily Nebraskan, November 20, 2017

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