Racial differences in juvenile attitudes toward capital punishment

Race Justice

Assessing Juveniles Perceptions on Capital Punishment

The purpose of this study is an exploration of the relationship between race and capital punishment. Specifically the researcher will explore the racial differences in attitudes toward capital punishment, focusing on juvenile opinions. The literature review reviews the many factors that may predict what factors will lead a person to vote against or for capital punishment. The literature review starts with a brief introduction that highlights some of the data collected for the introduction of this study.

Attitudes among juveniles regarding capital punishment are just as heated and challenging as they are among adults. While few studies directly explore the relationship between the death penalty and juveniles, there are reports provided by some empirical researchers suggesting by and large, the juvenile population is just as divided as the American people are on the issue. As noted in the introduction, the Death Penalty Information Center (2006) suggests at least 50% of all adults support the death penalty. However, the same group when offered other alternatives including the alternative of life without parole are likely to change their minds and their opinions of the death penalty. In ancient times, most people unequivocally supported the death penalty, as there were few resources available to conduct elaborate or even minimal burials to individuals that had committed crimes (Bedau & Cassell, 2004).

What Predicts Death Penalty Support?

If all other circumstances were similar, if all people were the same race, the same gender and of the same education, would they support or oppose the death penalty? Research suggests that depends on the socio-economic status and the individual personality and attributes of the individual (Young, 1991). An overwhelming body of evidence suggests if all factors remain the same, race is the number one predictor of ones opposition or support for capital punishment. The results of the literature review provided below show that certain elements including one's education and gender do tend to coincide with their opinions about capital punishment.

For example, Bedau & Cassell (2004) note that people that grow up in areas with little economic support and youths growing up in areas where crime is rampant are more likely to oppose capital punishment because more people that may be friends or family members are likely to be incarcerated. Ones sex, ones gender and one's race certainly do contribute to one's support for capital punishment. Generally people living in the north that are white, male, educated and wealthy tend to support capital punishment. The same is true however, if a male is black, well educated and living in the north; if all these factors are similar, then the black male is more likely to support capital punishment, although they may also support more life sentences or shorter sentences, depending on individual factors that include (but are not limited to) personality attributes and personal tastes (Bedau & Cassell, 2004).

There are many factors that predict support and opposition to the death penalty. Many studies conducted exploring age, race, sex, gender and educational level find that minorities are more likely to oppose capital punishment (Bedau & Cassell, 2004) whereas individuals that are highly educated and less likely to commit blue collar crimes are more likely to support capital punishment (Bedau & Cassell, 2004). In most cases women are more likely than men to oppose the death penalty for reasons as yet unknown (Bedau & Cassell, 2004). Historically, the first European to be executed on the soils of the United States was George Keendall, a man hanged for the "crime of spying on the Spanish" (Bedau & Casell, p.15). During the next four centuries according to the authors, roughly 20,000 or more individuals convicted of murder, rape, witchery, kidnapping and other crimes were convicted and met their death through capital punishment (Bedau & Cassell, p. 15). During the early colonial period, young black slaves were much more likely to face corporeal punishment that high-class or upper middle class "white folk" (Bedau & Cassell, p. 16). During the Revolutionary period in American history, more white historians, particularly men of high stature including Benjamin Franklin, began opposing corporeal punishment and the death penalty (which amounted to hanging back in the day) (Bedau & Cassell, 2004).

Tsoudis (2000) and Taylor (2000) suggest the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to support the death penalty regardless of their race, although Tsoudis notes it is more likely that white males will support capital punishment (60%) compared to black men of similar standing. Typically age does not affect one's support of the death penalty until the ages of 25-30 and older, because most studies conducted on death penalty support provide empirical analysis of this age group and of older adults (Bedau & Cassell, 2004).

Arguments for and Against Death Penalty

Originally in the United States, during the late 1700s there were two classifications of murder; second degree murder, where the offender premeditated the crime and committed a felony, classified as a crime warranting the death penalty, or so agreed many white lower, middle and upper class individuals. Quaker "abolitionists" worked diligently to oppose the death penalty however, as did other abolitionists, or individuals that were interested in freeing minorities from slavery and gaining equal rights for all mankind; perhaps this is one reason why women are more likely to oppose the death penalty. Women, like many minorities throughout time, were more likely to face capital punishment or be jailed as witches regardless of whether they committed a heinous crime (Bedau & Cassell, 2004).

Those supporting capital punishment today often argue that capital punishment is just and fair crime; the criminal is not killed in an "inhumane" way and therefore if the sentence is suitable the incarcerated should have to accept it (Bedau & Cassell, 2004). Often these are the same "republican type" individuals that argue executions should be open to the public so they can witness the death of a criminal guilty of capital crimes.

Race + Application/Race+ Geography

Baker, Lambert & Jenkins (2005) note in bivariate tests, significant differences existed between white and black students when asked if they supported the death penalty. The authors cite other researchers including Bohm (1987) and Whitehead & Blankenship (2000) who note that a racial and gender gap exist when one asks about the right or wrongness of capital punishment. Typically males are more likely note the authors, than females to support capital punishment. Whites typically are also more likely to support capital punishment than other minorities, especially black minorities, who are most commonly the victims of capital punishment (Baker, Lambert & Jenkins, 2005). One of the most consistent correlates of opinion research on the death penalty is race. Researchers have found consistent evidence that race is a deciding factor that affects support or the lack of support for capital punishment (Sandy & McGarrell, 1995). Most of the research that is available suggests that white males are more likely to support capital punishment than black males or other racial minorities of the same gender (Baker et al., 2005, Cochran & Chamlin, 2006, Barkan & Cohn, 1994, Young, 1991). Why do people support the attitudes they do? Much of the evidence provided suggests that whites with conservative attitudes are more likely to support the death penalty than Blacks; this may result from their prejudiced and stereotyped beliefs about blacks and other minorities (Barkan & Cohn, p.206). Further, whites living in Southern geographical locations are more likely to support capital punishment just as they are or were more likely to support slavery back during the early years of United States History (Barkan & Cohn, 1994).

The researchers did not find one's religious beliefs, at least not among fundamentalists, to be a contributing factor to one's beliefs about capital punishment (Barkan & Cohn, p. 206).

Public Opinion and Attitudes

Baker, Lambert & Jenkins (2005) surveyed adults noting that blacks are more likely to oppose the death penalty and ascribe the democratic party, while whites are more likely to support it and often scribe to the republican part. This information is interesting; because it correlates historically with proponents of the death penalty who claimed this nation should be republican and should enforce public viewing of capital punishment (Baker, Lambert & Jenkins, 2005; Bedau & Cassell, 2004). Baker, Lambert & Jenkins (2005) also find that blacks and other minorities typically differ in their responses and attitudes regarding the death penalty, with whites more prone to favor law enforcement agents and blacks less likely to promote labor enforcement agents.

Barkan and Cohn (1994) find there is overwhelming evidence that whites are more likely to support capital punishment, especially white males that are highly educated. One may assume according to Barkan & Cohn (1994) that this reflects "racial prejudice" however the authors not that "no study has yet assessed this possibility" so it is impossible to predict whether prejudice feelings play a role in one's attitudes toward capital punishment without an empirical analysis. After conducting their own assessment the researchers noted that White support for capital punishment is often "associated with antipathy to Blacks and with racial stereotyping" and that "political conservatism is also associated with support for the death penalty" with a statistical significance of p

Death Penalty Attitudes of the Offender

The same literature that shows blacks are less likely to favor capital punishment shows that black offenders are more likely to support shorter sentencing and less likely to agree with capital punishment (Baker, Lambert & Jenkins, 2005). At least, this trend is evident with regard to violent crimes. When approaching individuals and asking about minor crimes, black and white attitudes were similar (Baker, Lambert & Jenkins, 2005). However, this information is to be taken with a grain of salt, because other studies of harsh punishment suggest little differences exist in the opinions of offenders with regard to violent crime and non-violent crime, and with regard to capital punishment (Tsoudis, 2000).

Weitzer (2000) suggests black male offenders (36%) are more likely to support life sentences than they are capital punishment, especially if they come from environments that are poor and where they lack direction, influence or a proper job. Areas of low socio-economic status are more likely than middle class neighborhoods to produce minority offenders that oppose the death penalty and support life in prison (Weitzer, 2000).

Death Penalty Attitudes of Juveniles

There is little data that provides concrete information about juvenile's attitudes toward the death penalty. Clearly a gap in research exists when one considers the death penalty. Further research should be conducted to identify what juvenile's think of the death penalty. Close observation may provide researchers with valuable information that can explain the support for or lack of support for the death penalty later in life.

Young (1991) is one of many researchers that note that individuals living within the United States occupy various positions and hold certain beliefs to be true based on multiple factors including their race, gender, socio-economic status, educational status and other factors. Young (1991) notes that it is individual attitudes and characteristics that is more likely to become influenced by society at large. Society for some time now has shown a marked difference of opinion between white males and black males on the subject of capital punishment, with more white males than black males supporting it.

Perhaps juveniles would best be left to side with women, who are more likely to vote neutrally or to avoid voting on such issues at al. Young (1991) brings out an important point, noting that the "structure of attitudes" may be very different, and hypothesizes that "differences in the attitude structure exist because social structural position, represented by race, influences attributions of causality and responsibility" (p. 67). Young (1991) suggests that attribution theorists suggest it is easier for people to attribute crime to a known phenomenon. If people are raised to believe that blacks are guilty and deserve capital punishment, then young adults are more likely to attribute crime to associations with black people. This is where prejudiced attitudes and behaviors may begin, and this may be the reason why so many people are split by race in their opinion of capital punishment.

It could be a case of black people trying to stop the causation theory and trying to start people on the right road of belief, which would suggest that one's potential to engage in criminal behavior, is more related to multiple causal factors including their individual attitudes and preferences, rather than to race. This same line of thinking applies to capital punishment (Young, 1991). If more people believed that white people caused crimes and more white people held lower status blue collar jobs, then it is likely that black people would vote in favor of capital punishment. Historically, Young (1991) and others (Baker, Lambert & Jenkins, 2005; Cochran & Chamlin, 2006; Bedeau & Cassell, 2004) believe that what one is, is nothing more than what one is taught to believe. If young children believe through their experiences and education that capital punishment is ok among certain people because of the color of their skin, then they will grow up into adults that believe the same thing, and go on to influence their children and their children's children.

More studies should focus on encouraging juveniles to develop their own novel theories about capital punishment. These theories should focus on the many tools or methods educators and members of the community could use to prohibit racial prejudice and help juveniles remain innocent in their thinking. Only by doing this will juveniles likely remain neutral on the subject of capital punishment, unless they are provided with evidence that would prove they should believe in supporting or opposing capital punishment outright.

Summary of the Literature

The overwhelming literature supports the notion that white males of Caucasian ancestry are more likely to support the death penalty than black males. However, this trend is not overwhelmingly prevalent yet in the juvenile or adolescent population because there is not enough evidence collected on juveniles yet.

Conclusion

Most of the literature available on race relations and capital punishment prove that there is overwhelming evidence showing that gender and race influence ones support or lack of support for capital punishment (Chochran & Chamlin, 2006). Of all the studies conducted, Chochran & Chamlin (2006) note that a mean difference of almost twenty percent exists between black and white people's attitudes (Chochran & Chamlin, p. 85). The blacks that do support capital punishment, like the ones that oppose it are overwhelmingly male. Those that support capital punishment however are also conservative from a political vantage, have a higher income, and come from good backgrounds with ample education, much like their white peers that come from similar backgrounds (Cochran & Chamlin, 2006). Interestingly, if one were to remove all other factors including one's education, their socio-economic status and their gender, one would find there is more support for the death penalty among whites than there is among blacks. Whether the same holds true for juveniles is not yet determined. However, there is research which suggests that juveniles are likely to adopt the actions, behaviors, decisions and even political affiliations as their parents do (Bedau & Cassell, 2004). Because of this, one can assume that the results of a large comprehensive empirical analysis would show that while male juveniles are more likely to support the death penalty than black males, especially among candidates that are educated and come from good homes.

However, the results of the field research in this study still show that many juveniles, no matter their parents or guardians affiliations, are still undecided on the subject of capital punishment. While some have stringent attitudes, a good 30% or more of the students surveyed suggested they were neutral on the issue. These are the children that will grow up into the young adults that eventually run the nation and determine whether capital punishment is something that is good and commonplace or whether it is something that will be done away with.

As more and more law enforcement agencies look to reform criminals and return them to society as contributing members, there seems an opportunity to help juveniles learn that capital punishment can be controlled as can crime with the right knowledge and information. While the information provided in this study is limited with respect to the population sample, when one combines the evidence from the field research with the evidence from the literature review there is a clear distinction between the attitudes of whites and blacks. Race is a significant predictor of adult's perceptions of capital punishment, and may become a significant predictor of juvenile's perceptions of capital punishment. Will juveniles finally grow into adults that decide the issue once and for all? Not likely, especially when one notes that the issue has been hotly debated since the colonial times. While generally support for capital punishment has decreased, there is still much in the way of evidence showing the conservative white male dominated society is more likely to send people to their deaths than any other population, and that deserves further exploration.