Support for the Death Penalty in Cases of Rape and Sexual Assault: Variation between Victim Age Categories

• Author: Samantha Scott,Gale Iles,Merideth Smith,Jared Rosenberger,Rick Dierenfeldt
• Published date: 01 December 2021
• Date: 01 December 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20983742
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20983742

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(16) 1823 –1846

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20983742

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Article

Support for the Death Penalty

in Cases of Rape and Sexual

Assault: Variation between

Victim Age Categories

Rick Dierenfeldt1, Samantha Scott1, Gale Iles1,

Jared Rosenberger1, and Merideth Smith2

Abstract

Research exploring attitudes toward the death penalty is common in the field of

criminal justice. Additionally, a substantial body of literature has examined public

perceptions of sex offenders and punishment in the U.S. Unfortunately, few studies

have sought to examine perceptions of the death penalty in relation to sexual

offending. This study contributes to the literature by examining perceptions of the

college students at a mid-sized university in the Southeastern United States as they

relate to support for the death penalty in cases of sexual assault across victim age

categories. Findings suggest that respondent perceptions are shaped by biological sex,

political affiliation, college major, fear of crime, and parents’ level of education, and

these relationships are uniform across victim age categories. Further, support for the

death penalty appears inversely related with victim age.

Keywords

death penalty, sex offenders, rape, sexual assault, punishment of sex offenders

Introduction

On March 2, 1998, 44-year-old Patrick O’Neal Kennedy called the police to report

that his 8-year-old stepdaughter had been raped. According to reports, the extent

of the victim’s injury was so severe that it required extensive emergency surgery.

1University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA

2Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Rick Dierenfeldt, Department of Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies, University of Tennessee at

Chattanooga, 308 Brock Hall, Dept. 2102, 615 McCallie Ave, Chattanooga, TN 37403, USA.

Email: ricki-dierenfeldt@utc.edu

983742IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20983742International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyDierenfeldt et al.

research-article2020

1824 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(16)

The injuries included a laceration to the left vaginal wall that resulted in a separation

of the cervix from the back of the vagina, which in turn caused the rectum to protrude

into the vaginal structure. It was also reported that “her entire perineum was torn from

the posterior fourchette to the anus” (Kennedy v. Louisiana, 2008). Kennedy, himself,

was ultimately arrested, charged and convicted of the offense. At the time of sentenc-

ing, the Louisiana state statute held that:

“D. Whoever commits the crime of aggravated rape shall be punished by life imprisonment

at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

“(1) However, if the victim was under the age of 12 years, as provided by Paragraph A(4)

of this Section:

“(a) And if the district attorney seeks a capital verdict, the offender shall be punished by

death or life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension

of sentence, in accordance with the determination of the jury” (as cited in Kennedy v.

Louisiana, 2008)

Based on this statute and given the severity of the victim’s injury, in 2003, a jury

unanimously voted to sentence Kennedy to death. In upholding the decision of the

lower court, the State Supreme Court argued that children were a protected class and

sexual violence against them was unique in terms of the harm it inflicts. According to

the Court, “[S]hort of first-degree murder, we can think of no other non-homicide

crime more deserving [of capital punishment].” The case eventually made its way to

the U.S. Supreme Court where, in the 2008 landmark decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana,

the highest court in the land struck down the Louisiana state statute as unconstitu-

tional. Although the Court acknowledged that occurrences of child rape are more fre-

quent than intentional murder, it nonetheless ruled that the imposition of the death

penalty for a rapist who did not kill the victim constitutes excessive punishment. In

delivering the opinion of the 5-4 majority, Justice Kennedy noted that, “[b]ased both

on consensus and our own independent judgment, our holding is that the death sen-

tence for one who raped but did not kill a child, and who did not intend to assist

another in killing the child, is unconstitutional under the Eight and Fourteenth

Amendments” (Kennedy v. Louisiana, 2008).

To be clear, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Coker v. Georgia (1977) had

already prohibited the use of the death penalty for the rape of adult women. That Court

declared that the use of the death penalty for rape was “grossly disproportionate and

excessive.” Bell (2008) suggested that the justices’ interpretation of the Eighth

Amendment in Coker was partially fashioned using the concept of “proportionality”

established in Weems v. United States (1910). Delivering the opinion of the Court in

Weems, Justice McKenna stipulated that the interpretation of the Eighth Amendment

“will be regarded as a precept of justice that punishment for crime should be graduated

and proportioned to the offense.” Based on precedent, the majority in Kennedy felt

that despite the severity of the girl’s injury, the imposition of the death penalty for rape