CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Murder 2
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Brutalization & Incapacitation
Brutalization
• brutalization theory
o use of death penalty increases violence
▪ state sets example that violence is ok
▪ desensitizes people to violence
• brutalization studies
o Cochran & Chamlin
▪ no brutalization effect from resumption of executions in CA
▪ could be no effect, or could be deterrence & brutalization canceling each
other out
o Sorenson et. al.
▪ no deterrent or brutalization effect in TX
• Shepard
o deterrence in 6 states
o no effect in 8 states
o brutalization in 13 states
o threshold effects
▪ the 6 states with deterrence perform lots of executions
▪ deterrence may require a certain number of executions
o argues both deterrence and brutalization can be at work
Incapacitation
• incapacitation
o incapacitation = all the murders prevented because people are unable to commit
murder (because they're in prison or dead)
o who is the target?
▪ incapacitation targets capital murderers only
o what do we want to know?
▪ how many more murders are prevented by executing people than would
have been prevented merely by imprisoning them
• all murders in prison (other inmates, corrections officers) + all
murders by released capital murderers
• how do we measure this?
• Furman study (Marquart & Sorenson)
o all death-sentenced individuals commuted because of Furman
▪ 500 to 600 people
▪ followed commutes for several years to see if re-offended
• prison violence
o not disproportionately violent in prison, compared to other prisoners
▪ subsequent study (in textbook) shows no violence difference between life
without parole and life with parole prisoners
▪ but DeLisi & Munoz find higher rates of prison violence among
condemned inmates
o possibly because of age
o possibly because of different transition into general population
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