Carmen Esqueda

Crime 1

The Enduring racial divide in death penalty support

The research study that was conducted was to determine who was for or against the death penalty.  The survey used was the NORC General Social Surveys (GSS) over a 24-year time span (N= 32,937).  One of the questions from the survey was to determine if there was a racial difference in support of the death penalty.  The results indicated that whites 72.4% white support the death penalty, but 43.9% black supported the death penalty.  That is a huge difference of 28.5% that resulted in a statistical significance P < .0001.  There were two other studies conducted throughout the years of the study, but worded differently.  The first study asked how much the participant strongly agreed or strongly disagreed.  That study shown 69.7% white, 51.0% black and 53.0% Hispanic are for the death penalty.  The second study asked if generally speaking, are you in support of the death penalty for murders with answers from 1 strongly agree to 0 strongly disagree.  The results shown 86.4% white, 77.1 Hispanic, 64.4% black strongly agree in the death penalty for murders.  Overall, there is a statistical significance between whites in support of the death penalty over blacks because the whites rated the highest across all boards over blacks pro death penalty. 

Examining the Sources of Racial Bias in Potentially Capital Cases: A Case Study of Police and Prosecutorial Discretion

The article discusses a study that contains data from a different criminal justice agencies.  The study takes place over a four-year time span.  The dependent variables is whether someone is arrested for the crime or the assailant has been identified.  The variable are what describes the crime scene such as victims, location, circumstances, weapons used.  The results shown 46% cases ended with an arrest, 20% special circumstances lead to someone being convicted in a cleared case.  35% blacks, 50% Hispanics are the victims.  Among the murders that are solved 86% (victims), 94% (offenders) are men ranging in ages 25 to 28.  Overall, whites are more likely to get the death penalty over blacks.  White defendants (M= 0.19, SD= 0.39), black defendants (M= 0.48, SD= 0.50), Hispanics (M= 0.33, SD= 0.47).