Social Hierarchy and the Death Penalty: A Social Dominance Perspective

Abstract

This study examines the social factors related to use of the death penalty. In Study 1, the number of executions in each of the 50 states of the United States since 1976 was predicted from: (1) degree of social hierarchy, (2) Old Confederacy status, (3) political conservatism, (4) degree of violent crime, (5) income, (6) population size, (7) population density, (8) degree of education, (9) proportion of population which is white, and (10) proportion of whites murdered. Social hierarchy and conservatism were consistently and significantly related to use of executions. Study 2 predicted execution use in 147 countries from: (1) degree of social hierarchy, (2) number of murders, (3) size of government, (4) area, (5) education, (6) gross national product, and (7) population size. The degree of social hierarchy and number of murders were significantly related to execution use. While some of these results were predicted by the symbolic motives model or the deterrence model, it is argued that social dominance theory offers a more comprehensive explanation of the results as a whole.