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.