CJ 2696 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Abortion-Rights Movements, Anti-Abortion Movements, Econometrics

• School: Temple University
• Department: Criminal Justice
• Course: CJ 2696
• Professor: Tara Tripp

Document Summary

Research shows that public opinion surrounding the death penalty reveals that attitudes are often symbolic or value expressive more than they are rational or instrumental. Most often this question is never even asked when seeking public opinion on the use of the death penalty. When it is asked it oftentimes is offered as a secondary ideological position. Moreover, facts are often ignored or distorted by those with an emotional investment in their position on the death penalty. There are several key aspects to ascertaining whether or not the death penalty is a good policy: Your authors note that the argument that the death penalty as a general deterrent to crime is likely the oldest instrumental rational for its use. Executions as spectacles were intended to reinforce the serious consequences of particularly egregious crimes and to amplify the message of terror and to broadcast that message to the public (banner, 2002)