THE DEATH PENALTY is extremely popular in the United States, where liberal politicians have learned that overt opposition to it is fatal to their chances of elected office, yet it is extremely unpopular with American and European intellectuals. The Economist has review of Franklin Zimring 's new book, The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment . The review says
"The difference between European and American attitudes, says Mr Zimring, is not the breadth of support for the death penalty, but its depth. At the time of the death penalty's abolition in each developed country, a majority similar to America's, currently about 65%, wanted to keep it, according to opinion polls. But when European political elites turned against it after the second world war, electorates acquiesced. Today most Europeans probably would not want it back.Zimring has snookered The Economist. First of all, there is strong support in Europe for the death penalty. From an article in The American Enterprise: "Up to 77 percent of Britons support the reintroduction of capital punishment, and close to 50 percent think the same way in France and Italy. Even in peace-loving Sweden, a 1997 poll found that 49 percent of Swedes wanted the return of capital punishment." So are the Britons, French, Italians, and Swedes big fans of lynching?...
In a startling analysis, Mr Zimring shows that most executions are performed in a few states in the south and south-west where the lynching of African- Americans, other forms of mob violence and six- shooter justice were most endemic at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Opinion-poll support for the death penalty may be fairly uniform across America, and 38 states have the death penalty on their books. But many states hardly ever execute anyone. The vast bulk of executions take place only where the values of the lynch mob have endured, he says."
And, as the review admits, support for the death penalty in the U.S. is not limited to the South. Here, from a government source, are the percentages supporting the death penalty (keeping in mind that there are also some "don't know") in different regions of the United States in 2000:
Overall, the figure was 67% support. All but one demographic group had more than 50% support for the death penalty--- rich and poor, men and women, different political groups, different incomes, different educations, and different ages. The only exception was Blacks, with only 47% support and even then, only 43% of Blacks opposed the death penalty-- 10% were undecided-- so most Blacks with an opinion support the death penalty. Is that because they, and Midwesterners, are fans of lynching?
Well, why then does Texas have so many more executions than New York, when the death penalty commands strong support in both places? First of all, I bet the murder rate is higher in Texas. Much more important, though, is that the strength of democracy differs across the United States. The biggest obstacle to the death penalty is not public opinion, but judicial subversion and the legal resources of the anti-death-penalty movement. Texas judges are no doubt different from New York judges, even if the citizens are the same, and it may well be that Texas judges have more accountability and more fidelity to the laws they serve.
Zimring is a major figure in academic criminology. The weakness of his argument shows how little we should trust academic criminology.
[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.06.15a.htm ]
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