Abstract
A number of representative polls have been conducted on the death penalty in recent decades. There were some surveys whose authors were interested not only in the percentage of supporters and opponents of the death penalty, but also in whether this rate varies in different strata of society. Several polls were conducted, in which, in addition to socio-cultural factors, respondents were asked about their general attitudes and some research was also conducted in order to uncover the reasons behind the responses of the interviewees. From all of this, one can gain a clear picture as regards the socio-cultural characteristics of people in general, who are more in favour of the death penalty, as well as regarding what general ttitudes respondents have and for what reasons they formed their views. The subsequent presentation of the Hungarian surveys will help one to see whether distance in time affects the perception of the social need for capital punishment, and how such need changes over time. Overall, the aim of this study is to present a comprehensive human approach to the death penalty; that is, the goal is not to examine how many people have supported or opposed the death penalty in a particular country in a given period of time, but to find out what factors influence commitment to or against capital punishment and the causes thereof, and what factors can change people’s attitudes towards the death penalty.
Highlights
The issue of capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics on which the majority of people have a definite opinion
As mentioned, public opinion is not a conclusive argument for the state to develop regulations which are in line with the needs of society, it is important to find out what attitudes towards crime in society exist, and which attitudes are significantly correlated with support for or opposition to the death penalty
In 1999, the Harris Poll inquired about the mean estimate of how many are innocent of those people convicted of murder; the greater objection of women to capital punishment was revealed here since such mean estimate assessed by women was much higher (13%) than that assessed by men (8%). (In 2001, this ratio was 14% and 9%, respectively, and in 2008, the findings showed 14% and 10%, respectively.)
Summary
The issue of capital punishment is one of the most controversial topics on which the majority of people have a definite opinion. In Vidmar’s research, the fact of favouring capital punishment correlated, though not significantly, with education, that is, it was slightly more probable for better educated people to support capital punishment than for those less educated This poll was not able to detect any relationship between death penalty attitudes, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, gender, occupation, frequency of church attendance, family income, and some other, non-relevant socio-demographic variables. Radelet and Bonsteel analysed the National Opinion Research Center’s cumulative General Social Surveys between 1972 and 1988, which concerned the public opinion about capital punishment They found that, on average, men favour it more than women do since, in all of the years examined, the extent to which males supported the death penalty exceeded the ratio to which women did so. They have, found, that neither fear of crime nor religious belief has any effect on support for or opposition to capital punishment, but the impact of mass media on people does have such an effect on attitudes towards capital punishment
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