Facts & Research
Murder Rates
State and regional murder statistics show no correlation between use of the death penalty and reduced crime.
Facts & Research
State and regional murder statistics show no correlation between use of the death penalty and reduced crime.
The foundation for the death penalty in the U.S. rests on whether it is necessary as a response to murder. About 40 percent of the states have ended the use of capital punishment. Of the remaining states that retain it, only a few use it on a regular basis. The murder rates of states with and without the death penalty are relevant to whether it is justified. The murder rate for the country as a whole over various time periods is also a barometer of whether or not the public will be in favor of harsher punishments for crime. Murder rates, which are the result of dividing the number of murders by the population of a jurisdiction, can be more useful in comparing states and countries than the absolute number of murders committed.
In trying to measure whether the use of the death penalty has an effect on the level of violent crime, researchers often use murder rates and compare them with the practice of the death penalty, either through the number of executions or death sentences. This is problematic on a national basis because the death penalty is not available in many states, and where it is carried out, the executions amount to only a tiny percentage of the murders committed. Even when comparing states, it is difficult to single out whether the relatively rare use of the death penalty is causing a change in crime or whether the change is attributable to other causes such as the rate of employment, the quality of education, or many other local variables.
DPIC has collected statistics published by the FBI on the murder rates in each state for each year, each geographical region, and for the country as a whole. DPIC deepens the analysis by noting whether each state had the death penalty for the time period in question. Murder rates can easily be compared with other available data, such as the number of executions, death sentences, and the size of death row.
Oct 22, 2018
Fewer than half of Americans now believe the death penalty is fairly applied in the United States, according to the 2018 annual Gallup crime poll of U.S. adults, conducted October 1 – 10. The 49% of Americans who said they believed …
Read MoreMurder Rates
Jun 09, 2023
New data from AH Datalytics shows “sharp and broad decline” in murder rates for 2023. In a recent article published in The Atlantic, Jeff Asher (pictured), a crime analyst based in New Orleans and co-founder …
Deterrence
Nov 08, 2022
A DPIC analysis of 2020 U.S. homicide data has found that murder rates during the pandemic were highest in states with the death penalty and lowest in long-time abolitionist states. DPIC reviewed the 2020 murder data compiled by the cente…
Deterrence
Feb 24, 2022
Despite the absence of evidence that the death penalty protects police or promotes public safety, lawmakers in several states that have abolished capital punishment have introduced bills to reinstate capital punishment for the murders of police of…
Murder Rates
Sep 25, 2018
The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2017, released by the U.S. Department of Justice, reports that murder rates stabilized across the United States in 2017, decreasing marginally compared to adjusted homicide figures from 20…
Arbitrariness
Feb 28, 2018
With 24 prisoners currently condemned to die, Hamilton County — home to Cincinnati — has the largest death row of any county in Ohio, despite a smaller population and a lower murder rate than other pa…
Deterrence
Jan 12, 2018
States that have recently abolished the death penalty have not experienced the “parade of horribles” — including increased murder rates — predicted by death-penalty proponents, according to death-penalty experts who participated in a panel discussion …
Costs
Dec 18, 2017
On December 17, 2007, New Jersey abolished the death penalty. On the tenth anniversary of abolition, the editorial board of the New Jersey Law Journal writes, “On …
Costs
Oct 03, 2017
“The death penalty in the United States is at the end of its rope [and] its abolition will be a catalyst for reforming our criminal justice system.” So argues University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon L. Garrett
Deterrence
Sep 12, 2017
A Death Penalty Information Center analysis of U.S. murder data from 1987 through 2015 has found no evidence that the death penalty deters murder or protects police. Instead, the evidence shows that murder rates, including murders of police office…
Deterrence
Oct 30, 2015
The U.S. Department of Justice released its annual FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2014, reporting no change in the national murder rate since 2013. In the Northeast, the region with the fewest executions, the murder rate de…