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Murder, Capital Punishment, And Deterrence: A Review Of The Evidence And An Examination Of Police Killings., William C. Bailey, Ruth Peterson

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

This paper reviews and assesses the empirical literature on murder, capital punishment, and deterrence. There is a large body of evidence regarding these issues, with studies yielding a rather consistent pattern of nondeterrence. However, most investigations are limited because they rely upon the general homicide rate as the criterion variable, although both legally and theoretically, different types of murder may be differentially subject to deterrence. As an example of how deterrence investigations may benefit from examining different types of homicide, we conduct a monthly time-series analysis of the possible deterrent effect of the provision for capital punishment, levels of execution, …