Misapplications Reviews: The Capital Punishment Controversy: Part II

In the first installment of this two-part series, I discussed some studies on the deterrent effect of the death penalty that I view as clearly unreliable. Here I will consider some other analyses that seem worthy of greater attention. That done, I'll move on to some general musings (broodings?) on what the capital punishment controversy tells us about the conduct of social science research.

A whole host of social, demographic, and economic factors can cause homicide rates to differ over time and across regions. And given the historical rarity of executions, variations in their use would at most seem among the lesser causes of any differences observed. Thus, careful researchers on capital punishment have recognized that, unless the major influences on murder levels have been accurately identified and measured, there is little hope for any trustworthy answer to a question about deterrence.