NCJ Number
154932
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1995) Pages: 191-213
Date Published
1995
Length
23 pages
Annotation
Indiana is one of 40 jurisdictions in the U.S. that has capital punishment; while the State recently expanded the imposition of the death penalty in anticrime legislation, it has also restricted its imposition regarding mentally retarded defendants.
Abstract
Five hundred fourteen adults in Indiana participated in telephone interviews ascertaining their attitudes toward capital punishment as well as favorability and preference for alternative sentences, i.e., life without parole (LWOP), and a program combining work and restitution to crime victims' families. While 76 percent of the respondents indicated their support for capital punishment, only 26 percent preferred a death sentence to a sentence of LWOP plus work and restitution to victims' families. Only 9 percent of the total sample favored capital punishment when presented with alternative sentences and the issue of the death penalty for juvenile and mentally retarded offenders. At the bivariate level of analysis, white male conservatives were most supportive of capital punishment; at the multivariate level, gender and political orientation remained significant, while the race effect disappeared. 5 tables, 9 notes, and 26 references