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.

探讨死刑态度的研究在刑事司法领域很常见。此外，大量文献研究了美国公众对性犯罪和惩罚的看法 不幸的是，很少有研究试图检查与性犯罪相关的死刑看法。本研究通过检查美国东南部一所中等规模大学的大学生对跨受害者年龄类别的性侵犯案件支持死刑的看法，为文献做出贡献。调查结果表明，受访者的看法受生理性别、政治派别、大学专业、对犯罪的恐惧和父母的教育水平的影响，这些关系在受害者年龄类别中是一致的。更远，