Public Goals of Punishment and Support for the Death Penalty

Abstract

Social scientists and social commentators are often quick to impute motives to those who support capital punishment, but there is in fact little direct evidence on public goals of punishment or the way in which these goals influence public support for capital punishment. In a sample survey of Seattle residents, respondents were most likely to choose retribution as the primary purpose of punishment, followed by incapacitation, rehabilitation, specific and general deterrence, and normative validation. A preference for retribution increases dramatically with age, but declines with educational attainment. Proponents of retribution and normative validation are most likely to favor the death penalty, but, contrary to common assumption, retributivists constitute only a minority of those who support capital punishment.

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