Global support for the death penalty
| Author | James Unnever |
| DOI | 10.1177/1462474510376586 |
| Published date | 01 October 2010 |
| Date | 01 October 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Punishment & Society
12(4) 463–484
! The Author(s) 2010
Global support for the
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death penalty
DOI: 10.1177/1462474510376586
pun.sagepub.com
James Unnever
University of South Florida-Sarasota, USA
Abstract
The recently released Gallup International 2000 Millennium Survey Poll collected data from
individuals residing in 59 countries. The focus of this research was to analyze these data
to examine whether the abolition movement has ushered in a new ‘collective sensibility’
about the death penalty or whether global attitudes toward capital punishment are
characterized by deep divisions. The research assumes that the long-term stability of
abolition will be assured when the vast majority of the citizens of the world oppose the
use of the death penalty. The findings reveal that there are deep cleavages in worldwide
support for capital punishment. The article highlights five divides in support for capital
punishment and then separately discusses the results from the human rights and minor-
ity group threat analyses.
Keywords
cross-national, death penalty, public opinion
The United States is not alone in its use of the death penalty. In 1999, the year the
data used in this article were collected (the Gallup International 2000 Millennium
Survey), approximately 71 states used capital punishment (e.g. China, Iran, Iraq,
Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Japan). However, death
penalty abolitionists feel as though the momentum is in their favor. They note that
when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed in 1948 only a small
minority of States had abolished capital punishment. Yet, 61 years later,
Corresponding author:
James Unnever, University of South Florida-Sarasota, Department of Criminology, 8350 N. Tamiami Trail,
Sarasota, FL 34243
Email: unnever@sar.usf.edu
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Punishment & Society 12(4)
approximately two-thirds of the nearly 200 countries in existence have abolished
the use of the death penalty (Schabas, 2008; Hood and Hoyle, 2009). Indeed, a
report issued by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2000 notes that by
the middle of the 1990s more states had abolished rather than retained the use of
the death penalty. The UN report also recognizes that this momentum toward
abolition accelerated at unprecedented rates during the 1990s, especially the late
1990s (Hood and Hoyle, 2009). Africa has the highest number of countries that
have recently abolished the death penalty, and Western Europe and Latin America
now have the greatest numbers of states that have abolished capital punishment
altogether (Miethe et al., 2005; Schabas, 2008). However, as well noted, the USA
remains one of the most adamant supporters of capital punishment – what Steiker
(2002) refers to as ‘American exceptionalism’.
This article investigates global public opinion about the death penalty. Scholars
suggest that underlying the rapid recent gains in the abolition movement is an
emerging ‘collective sensibility’, a shared ‘cognitive landscape’, or ‘mindset’
among the world’s citizens that capital punishment is an affront to basic human
rights (Hood, 2001; Tonry, 2004, 2009; Hagan et al., 2005; Hood and Hoyle, 2008;
Schabas, 2008). Researchers argue that this possible ‘collective sensibility’ or
‘changing conception’ could be emerging as a result of elites and pro-abolitionists
framing the death penalty as a violation of the basic human right of the ‘right to
life’ as specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva
Convention; that is, framing it as an extreme form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading
punishment (Hood, 2001; Boulanger and Sarat, 2005). In fact, Schabas (2002: 366)
suggests that the recent extraordinary traction of the abolitionist movement has
resulted from ‘an equally pronounced trend in the evolution of international
human rights norms’.
Schabas (2002: 376) further adds that: ‘International law may assist considerably
in the battle for public opinion, by demonstrating a growing world-wide consensus
as to the fundamental principles of world order.’ Hood (2001) suggests that there
should be a decline in support for the death penalty even in states relatively
immune from the encircling human rights argument. Schabas (2002: 3) concludes
that ‘the day when abolition of the death penalty becomes a universal norm,
entrenched not only by convention but also by custom and qualified as a peremp-
tory rule of jus cogens, is undeniably in the foreseeable future’.
On the other hand, scholars note that at the time Western European countries
abolished capital punishment it had widespread public support (Zimring and
Hawkins, 1986; Simon and Blaskovich, 2002; Hood and Hoyle, 2009). Steiker
(2002: 108) reports that:
Majorities of roughly two-thirds opposed abolition in Great Britain in the 1960’s,
Canada in the 1970’s, France in the 1980’s, and the Federal Republic of Germany in
the late 1940’s (when capital punishment was abolished in Germany’s post-World War
II constitution). Indeed, there are no examples of abolition occurring at a time when
public opinion supported the measure.
Unnever
465
And, there still might be relatively strong support in states that have retained the
death penalty. For example, Simon and Blaskovich (2002) report that 70 percent of
Russians in 1997, 95 percent of Ukrainians in 1995, and 74 percent of Japanese
citizens in 1994 supported the death penalty. And, of course, it is well documented
that throughout the 1990s the majority of US citizens reported that they support
capital punishment for convicted murderers (Unnever et al., 2008).
Moreover, scholars have found that there are contentious divisions embedded in
public opinion about capital punishment (for a review of these divisions, see
Unnever and Cullen, 2009a). These fissures in support manifest themselves along
a multitude of fronts, including political and racial attitudes as well as along demo-
graphic characteristics such as race and educational attainment. However, given
that the literature is sparse on global predictors of support for the death penalty, it
is unclear whether worldwide opinion about the death penalty also has deep
fissures, or whether there is an emerging consensual understanding that capital
punishment should be abolished because it is a human rights violation.
Together, these studies indicate the need for research that examines whether a
new ‘cognitive landscape’ is emerging globally, which reflects the rapidly expanding
abolition movement, or whether there are fissures in attitudes toward the death
penalty (Hood and Hoyle, 2008). The discovery of divisions in the worldwide
support for capital punishment will identify those groups who will support its
abolition as well as those groups who either support its retention or will embrace
its reemergence. It is these latter individuals that may be most susceptible to ‘penal
populism’, particularly if ‘populist politicians’ exploit cataclysmic events such as
massive terrorist attacks (Roberts et al., 2003). Thus, this research identifies, on a
global basis, which individuals may be the most supportive of capital punishment
and other punitive policies and those who may facilitate political and judicial
leaders as they move toward abolition; that is, worldwide pockets of resistance
and change are identified.
Support for the death penalty
There is a considerable body of research that has investigated individual-level pre-
dictors of support for the death penalty (for reviews of this literature see Cullen
et al., 2000; Hood and Hoyle, 2008; Unnever et al., 2008; Unnever and Cullen,
2009a). However, the vast majority of this research has investigated the predictors
of support for capital punishment within the USA. Briefly, this research has found
that whites are more punitive than African Americans, the more educated are less
punitive, and conservatives are more willing to support capital punishment than
liberals. The prior research also shows that there may be slight decline in support
among younger individuals and that males might be slightly more punitive (Hood
and Hoyle, 2008). The extant research has generated equivocal findings related to
prior victimization and the fear of crime (Stack, 2004; Unnever et al., 2007) –
people who have been victims of crime or who particularly fear crime are not
consistently more likely to support capital punishment. However, there is research
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that indicates that the salience of crime predicts greater support in the USA and in
the Netherlands (Hessing et al., 2003; Costelloe et al., 2009). Individuals who con-
sider crime as a salient concern are more likely to endorse punitive correctional
policies. Hood and Hoyle (2008) add that support for the death penalty in Trinidad
is high because the majority of its citizens rank crime as the most salient problem
confronting their country.
Collectively, the data also show that religious beliefs and practices can both
exacerbate and mitigate support for the death penalty. For example, research
shows that church attendance and having a close relationship with a loving God
decrease support whereas a belief in a punitive God can increase support (Unnever
et al., 2006). It is noteworthy that denominational affiliation (whether being
Catholic or a Christian fundamentalist) has generated inconsistent effects with a
slight tendency for Catholics to be less and Conservative Protestants to be more
supportive of capital punishment (Unnever et al., 2005a; Unnever and Cullen,
...
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