For decades, capital punishment has been a highly divisive topic. Today, most democratic governments have done away with capital punishment, with few exceptions which include the United States. Drawing from the Canadian Election Study (2015) and the American National Election Study (2016), this article explores the underlying value systems that shape contemporary pro‐death penalty opinions in Canada and in the United States. Findings suggest that, in both countries, pro‐death penalty attitudes should be better understood as part of a “law and order syndrome.” In the United States, the distribution of attitudes toward death penalty is also the reflection of a partisan divide. Our results also support the hypothesis that government distrust increases death penalty support in Canada.

中文翻译：

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死刑辩论真的死了吗？对比加拿大和美国的死刑支持

几十年来，死刑一直是一个高度分裂的话题。今天，大多数民主政府已经废除了死刑，只有少数例外，包括美国。本文从《加拿大选举研究》（2015年）和《美国全国选举研究》（2016年）中汲取经验，探讨了塑造加拿大和美国当代死刑判决意见的潜在价值体系。研究结果表明，在这两个国家中，应将死刑前的态度更好地理解为“治安综合症”的一部分。在美国，对死刑的态度分布也是党派分歧的反映。我们的结果还支持政府不信任增加加拿大死刑支持的假设。