{"id":2440,"date":"2020-11-23T18:57:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T02:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2440"},"modified":"2020-11-23T18:57:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T02:57:56","slug":"gallup-majority-support-for-the-death-penalty-steady-at-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2440","title":{"rendered":"Gallup: Majority Support for the Death Penalty Steady at 55%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gallup does a yearly poll on support for the death penalty.\u00a0 This year’s edition<\/a> finds that support at 55%, essentially unchanged from the level going back three years to 2017.\u00a0 So this would seem not to be much news.\u00a0 But if you look a little more closely, there is some news in the poll\u00a0 —\u00a0 news not favorable to abolitionist forces.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first item of news in the partisan split.\u00a0 Only Democrats oppose capital punishment; Republicans (by a heavy majority) and Independents (by a lesser majority) continue to support it.<\/p>\n

The more important news item is that support for the death penalty has become stable after decades of sharp decline.\u00a0 As the poll shows, and abolitionists are quick to point out when it suits them, support was at 80% in the early to mid-ninties, and fell almost every year for two decades thereafter.\u00a0 It reached 55%\u00a0 —\u00a0 25 points lower\u00a0 —\u00a0 in 2017.<\/p>\n

Having been at that level for four years now after a long and significant decline, the question arises:\u00a0 Why has the erosion of support for the death penalty stopped?<\/p>\n

I can’t say for sure, but there’s a striking correlation that gives us a hint.\u00a0 The long decline in support for the death penalty coincided almost exactly with the long decline in murder.\u00a0 See the crime statistics gathered here<\/a>.\u00a0 After a 23 year-long drop, murder started back up in 2015, two years before the erosion of support for capital punishment seems to have ended.\u00a0 As those same statistics also show, murder has now leveled off, although it’s still at levels above its modern low point six years ago.<\/p>\n

So what do we see?\u00a0 That when the murder rate falls, support for the death penalty also falls (although by not nearly as much).\u00a0 When the decline in homicide stops and the murder rate more-or-less becomes stable, support for the death penalty also becomes more-or-less stable.<\/p>\n

This should surprise no one.\u00a0 The death penalty is harsh medicine.\u00a0 No sane person is enthusiastic about putting another human being to death.\u00a0 It’s the kind of medicine likely to enjoy the greatest subscription when the illness afflicting society is at its most menacing.\u00a0 The upshot is likewise not that hard to see:\u00a0 The way to have fewer executions is not to change the law\u00a0 —\u00a0 law a clear majority of our citizens (and the Supreme Court) continue to support\u00a0 —\u00a0 but, through aggressive policing and more sober sentencing early in a violent criminal’s career, to suppress the attitudes and behavior which, if not reversed, will in too many cases produce a gruesome outcome for which society will see capital punishment as just.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gallup does a yearly poll on support for the death penalty.\u00a0 This year’s edition finds that support at 55%, essentially unchanged from the level going back three years to 2017.\u00a0 So this would seem not to be much news.\u00a0 But if you look a little more closely, there is some news in the poll\u00a0 —\u00a0 news not favorable to abolitionist forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-penalty","category-polls"],"yoast_head":"\nGallup: Majority Support for the Death Penalty Steady at 55% - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2440\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gallup: Majority Support for the Death Penalty Steady at 55% - 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