The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle is the Fourth Edition of a text that highlights the latest developments in the death penalty around the world. Roger Hood utilizes his experience as a consultant to the United Nations’ annual survey of capital punishment in compiling a wide range of information from non-governmental organizations and academic literature. The book explores both the advances in legal challenges to the death penalty and the reduction in executions, while noting the continued existence of human rights abuses. Problems include unfair trails, police abuse, painful forms of execution, and excessive periods of time spent in inhumane conditions on death row. The authors explore the latest issues related to capital punishment such as deterrence, arbitrariness, and what influence victims’ families should have in sentencing.

A sample of reviews of earlier editions of this book:

“brings an international human rights perspective to the discussion … its wordwide perspective brings another dimension and greater depth to the arguments surrounding the return of executions to America.” -Leigh B. Bienen, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

“excellent study … is likely to remain for some time the scholarly authority that complements the regular and continuing publications of Amnesty International and other campaigning organizations.” -Andrew Rutherford, University of Southampton, British Journal of Criminology.

“offers the reader comprehensive insight into the current use of the death penalty throughout the world…This book is both comprehensive and extremely informative and will appeal to students, researchers, and anyone else seeking knowledge on the current state of the death penalty around the world.” Criminal Justice.

“the most authoritative account of the status of death penalty - its abolition and retention - in the contemporary world.” Journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers.

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective (Oxford University Press 2008) can be purchased here. See also Books and International.

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