Abstract

The death penalty has historically been used to communicate moral outrage and fear about the murders of some kinds of victims more than others. A large body of research has inquired into the effects of defendant race, and to a lesser extent victim race in capital punishment. However, there is much less research on how victim gender influences capital punishment decisions, and even less research on how victim gender and race might intersect to influence such decisions. This study examines the role of victim gender and race in: prosecutors’ decisions to seek the death penalty, prosecutors’ decisions to retract death filings, and jury or judge decisions to sentence defendants to the death penalty. We utilize detailed data on first degree murder convictions in 18 Pennsylvania counties, 2000–2010. The intersecting gender and race of victims conditioned each of the death penalty outcomes. In addition, whether the victim had children conditioned the effects of victim gender/race.

摘要

死刑历来被用来传达道德上的愤怒和对某些受害者被谋杀的恐惧，而不是其他人。大量研究调查了被告种族的影响，以及在较小程度上受害者种族在死刑中的影响。然而，关于受害者性别如何影响死刑决定的研究要少得多，关于受害者性别和种族如何交叉影响这些决定的研究就更少了。本研究考察了受害者性别和种族在以下方面的作用：检察官寻求死刑的决定、检察官撤回死亡申请的决定以及陪审团或法官对被告判处死刑的决定。我们利用了 2000-2010 年宾夕法尼亚州 18 个县一级谋杀定罪的详细数据。受害者的交叉性别和种族决定了每一个死刑结果。此外，受害者是否有孩子取决于受害者性别/种族的影响。