Reasons for South Korean attitudes towards the death penalty: exploring the nexus between strong public support and history of misapplication

ABSTRACT

As of this writing, South Korea (officially, the Republic of Korea) is an abolitionist-in-practice nation; capital punishment is legal, but no death sentences have been carried out since a moratorium was enacted in 1997. Public support for the death penalty has decreased over time; however, the factors that determine support for or opposition to the death penalty of the South Korean general public are largely unknown. Using survey data from a nationwide sample of 416 respondents, this study examined the potential predictors for public attitudes towards capital punishment support. A majority of survey respondents (83%) supported the death penalty, a higher percentage than recent surveys of the South Korean general public. The deterrence and retribution perspectives were positively related to death penalty support, while crime severity, neighbourhood safety, the brutalisation effect, and innocence were negatively related. This study provides the first multivariate analysis of factors associated with South Korean attitudes towards the death penalty.

KEYWORDS:

• South Korea
• public attitudes
• death penalty
• deterrence
• retribution

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eunsuhk Choi

Eunsuhk Choi is a student in the criminal justice and criminology program at Washington State University. Her research interests are violence against women, women empowerment, sex offender risk assessment, evidence-based policies, death penalty views, and cross-national research on views on crime, offenders, and punishment.

Shanhe Jiang

Shanhe Jiang is a professor of criminal justice, Wayne State University. His recent research focuses on institutional and community corrections, semiformal social control, death penalty views, smart policing, street lights and crime, and comparative criminology/criminal justice.

Eric G. Lambert

Eric G. Lambert is a faculty member in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Albany. His research interests include organizational issues, job and organizational effects on the attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of criminal justice employees, and the international perceptions, attitudes, and views on criminal justice issues.