According to recent Gallup polls, 64% of Americans favor the death penal­ty, while 48% of Canadian and 55% of British cit­i­zens favor the pun­ish­ment. Great Britain and Canada have abol­ished the death penal­ty. The polling research also exam­ined whether cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has a deter­rent effect on crime. Polling has revealed that most Americans do not believe the death penal­ty acts as a deter­rent to com­mit­ting mur­der. Gallup’s report com­pared homi­cide sta­tis­tics in the United States, Britain, and Canada and the data cast doubt on any deter­rent effect. In 2001, there were 554 mur­ders in all of Canada, 167 few­er than in 1975 when the nation aban­doned cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. With a mur­der rate that has held steady at 1 or 2 per 100,000 for decades, Britain has sim­i­lar sta­tis­tics. From 1972 – 1976, when the U.S. did not impose the death penal­ty, there were between 8.8 and 9.8 homi­cides per 100,000, but when the U.S. returned to using the death penal­ty, the mur­der rate esca­lat­ed to 10.2 per 100,000 in 1980, though it has since come down. (Gallup Poll Briefing, March 16, 2004) See Public Opinion. See also Deterrence and International Death Penalty.

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