Discussions With DPIC — Does Capital Punishment Deter Murder? Exploring mur­der rates, killings of police offi­cers, and the death penalty

Death penal­ty pro­po­nents have long assert­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment advances pub­lic safe­ty by deter­ring mur­ders, and this, they say, is espe­cial­ly true when it comes to pro­tect­ing police offi­cers. The Death Penalty Information Center recent­ly con­duct­ed an analy­sis of mur­der data from 1987 – 2015 to deter­mine whether the num­bers sup­port that claim. DPIC Fellow Seth Rose speaks with Executive Director Robert Dunham about the DPIC study and what it tells us about the rela­tion­ship between mur­der rates, killings of police offi­cers, and the death penalty.