Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of police officers are important in shaping public opinion on the death penalty. However, there is a paucity of research in the Caribbean on police officers’ attitudes towards the death penalty and thus insufficient police scholarship on this topical issue. More specifically, there is a noticeable sparseness of scholarship on the death penalty using police recruits as proxies for such studies. As a result of this lacuna, the current study examined attitudes of police recruits towards the death penalty using a mixed-method approach to gather data on attitudes towards the death penalty as well as alternatives to the death penalty. Questionnaires were distributed to one hundred and seven individuals undergoing police recruit training at the Police Academy in Trinidad and Tobago. The data were distilled by gender, education level, marital status, and age range to determine attitudes towards the death penalty among the recruit population. The findings revealed: (1) high levels of support for the death penalty, (2) the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence for persons found guilty of murder, and (3) life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as the best alternative sentencing option to the death penalty. Three themes (consistent application of the death penalty, life imprisonment without parole, and murder only) emanated from the qualitative component of the instrument and these are discussed.

中文翻译：

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特立尼达和多巴哥新招募警察对死刑的态度

警察的知识、态度和信仰对于塑造公众对死刑的看法非常重要。然而，加勒比地区缺乏关于警察对死刑态度的研究，因此关于这一热门问题的警察学术研究也不足。更具体地说，使用新招募的警察作为此类研究的代理，关于死刑的学术研究明显很少。由于这一缺陷，本研究采用混合方法调查了新招募的警察对死刑的态度，以收集有关死刑以及死刑替代方案的态度的数据。向在特立尼达和多巴哥警察学院接受警察新兵培训的 107 名个人发放了调查问卷。这些数据按性别、教育水平、婚姻状况和年龄范围进行提炼，以确定新兵人群对死刑的态度。调查结果显示：(1) 对死刑的高度支持，(2) 死刑是对犯有谋杀罪的人最合适的判决，(3) 不得假释的无期徒刑是最佳替代量刑死刑的选择。该文书的定性部分提出了三个主题（一致适用死刑、不得假释的无期徒刑和仅限谋杀），并对这些主题进行了讨论。