The results of a poll of police chiefs recent­ly fea­tured in DPIC’s report ​“Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis” is now avail­able in the form of a slide pre­sen­ta­tion on the Web, suit­able for use in work­shops or dis­cus­sion groups. The poll, com­mis­sioned by DPIC and con­duct­ed by R.T. Strategies of Washington, DC, sur­veyed a nation­al sam­ple of 500 ran­dom­ly select­ed U.S. police chiefs on ques­tions regard­ing the death penal­ty and reduc­ing vio­lent crime. Although the police chiefs did not oppose the death penal­ty philo­soph­i­cal­ly, they found it to be an inef­fec­tive crime fight­ing tool. Among those sur­veyed, only 1% of the chiefs list­ed greater use of the death penal­ty as the best way to reduce vio­lence. The poll also showed police chiefs rank­ing the death penal­ty as the least effi­cient use of tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey among pro­grams to fight crime. Most of the police chiefs did not believe the death penal­ty acts as a deter­rent to murder.

Access the slide pre­sen­ta­tion here; read DPIC’s ​“Smart on Crime” report.

(DPIC, post­ed Mar. 17, 2010). See also Resources and New Voices.

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