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Chapter 25 - Capital Punishment/Death Penalty

from Part II - Problems Related to Crime and Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2018

By
Michael L. Radelet  and
Scott Phillips
Edited by
A. Javier Treviño
A. Javier Treviño
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Massachusetts
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Summary

By any measure, the death penalty is in steep decline worldwide. In 1977, only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty, but that figure had increased to 140 by 2016. In this chapter we focus on the United States, where, as of mid-2015, the death penalty was authorized in thirty-two states and approximately 2,900 men and women are housed on death row. While a dwindling number of Americans view the death penalty as a social problem because they want to expand its use, a growing number are seeing it as a social problem because they believe it is no longer justified and want it to be restricted or even abolished. In this chapter we describe the arguments used by both sides, and conclude that the long-term trend away from the death penalty is unidirectional and further eroding of its use is inevitable.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems , pp. 433 - 448
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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References

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