Thomas Charles W, Foster Samuel C
Department of Sociology.
Department of Criminology.
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1975 Jul;45(4):641-657. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.1975.tb01192.x.
Conceptualizations of public support for the death penalty that suggest that punitiveness, desire for vengenance, authoritarianism, polital conservatism, or other characteristics generally held in low esteem by many in the academic and research communities are the primary or most significant predictors of citizen responses to this issue are challenged. It is proposed instead that fear of crime, perceptions of increasing crime rates, a belief in the efficacy of punishment as a means of deterrence, and a willingness to employ punishment as a response to criminality have a far more important causal role than has previously been recognized.
关于公众对死刑支持的概念化观点认为，惩罚性、复仇欲望、威权主义、政治保守主义或其他许多学术和研究界人士普遍不看好的特征是公民对该问题反应的主要或最重要预测因素，这种观点受到了挑战。相反，有人提出，对犯罪的恐惧、对犯罪率上升的认知、对惩罚作为威慑手段有效性的信念以及愿意将惩罚作为对犯罪行为的回应，所起的因果作用远比之前所认识到的更为重要。
