Death Penalty Attitudes and Juror Decisions in Australia

Although Australia does not currently have a death penalty law, an increasing concern about violent crime has raised the possibility that capital punishment, abolished in the 1960s, may be reconsidered. to determine the death penalty attitudes and potential jury behaviour of younger Australians, who...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian psychologist 1999-03, Vol.34 (1), p.64-69
Main Authors: Forsterlee, Lynne, Horowitz, Irwin A., Forsterlee, Robert, King, Karen, Ronlund, Luke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Capital punishment
Decision making
Juries
Sentencing
Surveys
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Summary:Although Australia does not currently have a death penalty law, an increasing concern about violent crime has raised the possibility that capital punishment, abolished in the 1960s, may be reconsidered. to determine the death penalty attitudes and potential jury behaviour of younger Australians, who have grown up without capital punishment, an experiment was conducted with 166 Australians, aged 18 to 30 years. Jurors who professed anti‐(29%) or pro‐ (71%) death penalty attitudes were exposed to one of four murder trials. Pro‐death penalty jurors were harsher in their sentencing, more likely to determine that the defendants had high volition and would be dangerous in the future, and were less likely to accept an insanity defence. The findings mirrored the profile of death qualified jurors in the United States.
ISSN:0005-0067
1742-9544
DOI:10.1080/00050069908257427