Gay and Lesbian Individuals’ Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty

• Published date: 01 June 2012
• Author: Meredith G. F. Worthen,Susan F. Sharp,Forrest R. Rodgers
• Date: 01 June 2012
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016812438390
• Subject Matter: Articles

Gay and Lesbian Individuals’

Attitudes Toward the Death

Penalty: An Exploratory

Study of the Roles of

Empathic Concern and

Political Beliefs

Meredith G. F. Worthen

1

,

Susan F. Sharp

1

, and Forrest R. Rodgers

1

Abstract

Research examining attitudes toward the death penalty has led to a variety of theoretical and

practical implications that continue to inform both research and policy. While many studies have

examined how race, class, and gender are related to attitudes toward the death penalty, there is a

complete lack of literature regarding sexual orientation and attitudes toward the death penalty. This

is quite surprising since demographic research suggests that gay and lesbian individuals (compared to

heterosexual individuals) have significantly higher levels of education and may be much more likely to

align with liberal politics (two things that have been found t o be correlated w ith a lack of suppo rt

for the death penalty). Furthermore, studies suggest that gender differences in attitudes toward

capital punishment can be related to the fact that women are socialized to be more empathic than

men; however, it is unclear how these gender differences in empathic concern may be related to

death penalty attitudes among gay and lesbian individuals. In this exploratory analysis using the

General Social Su rvey (years 2002 an d 2004), the author s investigate g ay and lesbian indi viduals’

attitudes toward the use of the death penalty. Preliminary findings indicate that similar to het-

erosexuals, the majority of gay and lesbian individuals support the death penalty; however, being a

gay man exerts a significant negative effect on death penalty support. Furthermore, both empathic

concern and political beliefs entirely mediate the effects of gender and sexual orientation on

attitudes toward the death penalty.

Keywords

death penalty attitudes, gay, lesbian, gender, empathic concern, political beliefs

1

Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, Norman , OK, USA

Corresponding Author:

Meredith G. F. Worthen, Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma, 780 Van Vleet Oval, KH 331, Norman, OK

73019, USA

Email: mgfworthen@ou.edu

Criminal Justice Review

37(2) 239-261

ª2012 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/0734016812438390

http://cjr.sagepub.com

Public opinion polls and attitudinal surveys have consistently shown that the majority of the adult

American population supports capital punishment

1

(e.g., Cullen, Fisher, & Applegate, 2000; Soss,

Langbein, & Metelko, 2003). While some suggest that support for the death penalty is related to sev-

eral factors including gender, race, political beliefs, religi ous fundament alism, governm ent trust,

education, and income (e.g., Messner, Baumer, & Rosenfeld, 2006; Peffley & Hurwitz, 2002; Soss

et al., 2003; Unnever & Cullen, 2006), there is a complete lack of research regarding gay and les-

bian individuals’ attitudes toward the death penalty. Indeed, a review of the literature indicates

that virtually no empirical studies to date have explored sexual orientation as it pertains to public

opinion, especially as it relates to views toward the death penalty. This is quite surprising since

demographic research suggests that gay and lesbian individuals ma y have significantly higher lev-

els of education (Barrett, Pollack, & Tilden, 2002) and may be much more likely to align with lib-

eral politics (Bailey, 1998; Hertzog, 1996; Smith & Haider-Markel, 2002), two qualities that have

been found to be highly correlated with a lack of support for the death penalty (see Applegate,

Cullen, Fisher, & Vander Ven, 2000).

In the current research, we use the General Social Survey (GSS; years 2002 and 2004) to explore

gay and lesbian individuals’ attitudes toward the use of the death penalty for murderers. Below, we

discuss the importance of understanding gay and lesbian individuals’ attitudes while also highlight-

ing studies that have explored gender and death penalty support. W e also provide sup port for

hypothesizing a relationship between sexual orientation and attitudes toward the death penalty uti-

lizing empathic concern and political beliefs as important constructs. Specifically, the purpose of

the current project is twofold: (1) to provide an exploratory examination of the relationship

between sexual orientation, empathic concern, and attitudes toward the death penalty and (2) to

call for future research in this area. Although we acknowledge, there are limitations of the current

project, we believe that an exploratory analysis of this type introduces important relationships that

deserve attention in future research.

Gay and Lesbian Individuals’ Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty

With nearly 9 million adult Americans identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (Gates, 2011), we

argue that understanding gay and lesbian individuals’ attitudes toward the death penalty is important

for two reasons. First, it is essential that gay and lesbian individuals are represented in public opinion

studies about the death penalty and death penalty laws because currently, they are a silenced minor-

ity population when it comes to death penalty issues. Second, it is important that attorneys involved

in jury selection processes (i.e., voir dire, the questioning of prospective jurors) consider the signif-

icance of understanding gay and lesbian individuals’ perspectives about the death penalty. Below,

we outline these two arguments.

First, many researchers have acknowledged the power of public opinion and its link to death pen-

alty policies (e.g., McGarrell & Sandys, 1996). Indeed, Sharp (1999) notes that public opinion can

have a considerable effect on policy initiatives, especially in the case of laws and policies about cap-

ital punishment. Since Trop v. Dulles (1958), courts in the United States have relied heavily on levels

of public support of the death penalty when making decisions about capital punishment (McGarrell

& Sandys, 1996). As a result, there has been great interest in the examination of correlates of death

penalty attitudes (e.g., Cullen et al., 2000; Soss et al., 2003). Indeed, researchers have established

patterns regarding the relationship between certain characteristics and death penalty support. For

example, men are more likely to support the death penalty when compared to women (Stack,

2000), those in the south are more supportive of the death penalty than those in other regions of the

United States (Borg, 1997), and Whites are more likely to support the death penalty when compared

to African Americans (Soss et al., 2003). Furthermore, Finckenauer (1988) notes that public support

for the death penalty may be related to personality characteristics including racial prejudice, which

240 Criminal Justice Review 37(2)