A recent study by Professors Thomas Mowen and Ryan Schroeder of the University of Louisville found that pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty has shift­ed away from tra­di­tion­al jus­ti­fi­ca­tions (such as its pur­port­ed deter­rent effect, its imag­ined cost-sav­ing val­ue, and its safe­guard of inno­cent lives), and has been replaced by ratio­nales of ret­ri­bu­tion and clo­sure on behalf of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. According to the study, which was pub­lished in Western Criminology Review, ​“with this change in jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, emo­tion­al cathar­sis for the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers has become the goal of the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. This has result­ed in the onus of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment being placed on the victim’s fam­i­ly.” The study found that this change of jus­ti­fi­ca­tions for the death penal­ty has pro­duced a back­lash against it. In the two decades fol­low­ing the rise of ret­ri­bu­tion and clo­sure for vic­tims as pri­ma­ry jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the death penal­ty, there has been a sig­nif­i­cant increase in oppo­si­tion to exe­cu­tions from fam­i­lies of vic­tims. The report stat­ed, ​“The grow­ing cov­ic­tim oppo­si­tion to the exe­cu­tion of the offend­ers in their indi­vid­ual cas­es high­lights the resis­tance of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies to accept­ing the respon­si­bil­i­ty for the state-sanc­tioned death of the offend­ers, specif­i­cal­ly, and to the notion that the court can pro­vide clo­sure, more generally.”

Finally, the report found that news­pa­per cov­er­age of cap­i­tal cas­es in which the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly sup­port­ed exe­cu­tion of the offend­er received more words per arti­cle and greater expo­sure than in cas­es in which the vic­tims opposed the exe­cu­tion. The report con­clud­ed, ​“the find­ings [ ] sig­nal that cov­ic­tims are increas­ing­ly opposed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and do not believe the impo­si­tion of death brings closure.”

(T. Mowen and R. Schroeder. ​“Not In My Name: An Investigation of Victims’ Family Clemency Movements and Court Appointed Closure,” Western Criminology Review, 2011). See Victims and Studies.

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