New Resource: A Review of Deterrence Studies and other Social Science Research

Robert Weisberg, a pro­fes­sor at Stanford University’s School of Law, exam­ines recent stud­ies on deter­rence and the death penal­ty, as well as oth­er social sci­ence research ragard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. In The Death Penalty Meets Social Science: Deterrence and Jury Behavior Under New Scrutiny, Weisberg notes that many of the new stud­ies claim­ing to find that the death penal­ty deters mur­der have been legit­i­mate­ly crit­i­cized for omit­ting key vari­ables and for not address­ing the poten­tial dis­tort­ing effect of one high-exe­cut­ing state, Texas. Later in the arti­cle, Weisberg exam­ines stud­ies on race-of-vic­tim dis­crim­i­na­tion and on cap­i­tal jurors. This arti­cle will appear in the forth­com­ing edi­tion of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science. (1 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 151 (2005)). See Deterrence and Resources.

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