Public opinion on the death penalty in Latin America: exploring the individuals determinants in 11 jurisdictions

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to analyse the individual determinants of public attitudes towards the pro-death penalty in 11 Latin American jurisdictions surveyed by the World Values Survey 7th wave (2017–2020). We use linear regression to examine two explanations that may help us understand popular support for the death penalty in this region: the escalating crime-distrust model and the out-group animus model. The analysis shows that both models provide only partial support for variations in public attitudes towards the death penalty in Latin America. While there is an association between residents’ fear of crime and their disdain for out-groups, an important part of the explanation seems to be related to contextual factors in each country. Thus, future studies need to analyse how elite framing and/or movements in defence of victims of violent crimesexplain popular attitudes towards the death penalty in the region.

KEYWORDS:

• Death penalty
• public opinion
• theories of punitiveness
• Latin America
• comparative criminology

Acknowledgment:

The authors would like to thank Stewart De Soto and Tomas' O'Hara for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Unnever and Cullen (2010b) identify a third perspective they call the moral decline model. This perspective has been little used in the study of punitive attitudes and will not be reviewed in this paper.

2. Information on the original variables and coding procedures used in this study are in the script of analysis conducted in R. For access to this script, email the authors.

3. Sexual harassment refers both to a form of sexual violence that occurs in organisations where hierarchical relationships are present and to a form of sexual violence that affects women in public space. The WVS captures this last modality of sexual violence, which has been the object of growing public discussions in Latin America (CEPAL & Para, 2015). In countries like Chile, Peru and Brazil, for instance, sexual harassment in public spaces has become a crime in recent years. Although it is not considered a crime in other jurisdiction, we chose to keep this type of sexual violence in our crime index because it captures a phenomenon that causes insecurity in the region.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive a specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Cléber Lopes

Cléber Lopes, Ph.D., is professor of Political Science at the Londrina State University. His field of interest includes the pluralisation of security, security governance, security networks and public policy.

William De Soto

William De Soto, Ph.D., is professor of Political Science at Texas State University and is interested in public policy. [email protected]

Ednaldo Ribeiro

Ednaldo Ribeiro, Ph.D, is professor of Political Science at the Maringa State University. His field of interest includes the political behaviour, political culture and democratisation processes.

Julio Gonzalez

Julio Gonzalez is an independent scholar based in Baltimore, MD.