Opinion towards capital punishment: a comparative study between academicians, lawyers, police and public

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to find out the opinion towards capital punishment of the societies various segments. The sample consists of 420 respondents from various streams like academicians, lawyers, police personnel and public, who were randomly selected from 5 districts around Mysuru region. The selected sample was administered both demographic data sheet and structured inventory. Data collected were analyzed using chi-square tests. Results revealed that majority of 87.6% the respondents opined that capital punishment law required for a democratic country like India, and it will create awareness about criminals in modern society (82.4%). Majority of 78.3% them agreed that capital punishment be given for criminal acts of pervert mindset, there is a need for legal amendment (81.7%) to settle the execution of capital punishment at the earliest and capital punishment law is a victory to the judicial system of our country. Respondents (55.5%) in large were of the opinion that life sentence should not be awarded instead of capital punishment and interference of human rights commission (65.7%) in the execution of capital punishment is not justified. There was ambiguity in the case of age limit for awarding capital punishment. Comparisons across groups indicated that academicians and public respondents more agreed for capital punishment creating awareness about criminals in modern society and disagreed for life sentence than lawyers and police personnel.