Race, Racism, and Support for Capital Punishment

Abstract

There is a clear racial divide in support for the death penalty, with whites favoring and blacks opposing this sanction. This divide has persisted for decades and remains statistically and substantively significant even when controls are introduced for the known correlates of death penalty attitudes. A meaningful portion of this chasm is explained, however, by racism, with whites who manifest animus to blacks being more likely to embrace the lethal punishment of offenders. This relationship likely exists cross‐nationally. Data from Great Britain, France, Spain, and Japan show that animosity to racial or ethnic minorities predicts support for capital punishment in these nations. In the United States, the greater support for capital punishment among whites, particularly those who harbor racial or ethnic resentments, undermines the legitimacy of the state and its use of the ultimate penalty. Consistent with conflict theory, white support of the death penalty is likely based on the perceived “social threat” posed by racial, ethnic, and immigrant groups. African American opposition to the death penalty is perhaps best explained by a historically rooted fear of state power, which is captured by the concept of the “state threat” hypothesis.

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