HARDENING OF THE ATTITUDES - AMERICANS VIEWS ON THE DEATH-PENALTY

American support for the death penalty has steadily increased since 19 66, when opponents outnumbered supporters, and now in the mid-1990s is at a near record high. Research over the last 20 years has tended to confirm the hypothesis that most people's death penalty attitudes (pro or con) are based on emotion rather than information or rational argu ment. People feel strongly about the death penalty, know little about it, and feel no need to know more. Factual information (e.g., about de terrence and discrimination) is generally irrelevant to people's attit udes, and they are aware that this is so. Support for the death penalt y has risen for most major felonies. Youth is seen as much less of a m itigating factor than it was 35 years ago, but most people still oppos e the execution of the mentally retarded. As crime rates have risen de spite repeated promises by politicians to ''get tough on crime,'' the death penalty has become an increasingly prominent issue in electoral politics, suggesting that public opinion should be an issue of central importance for research. We suggest that future research should focus more explicitly on racial attitudes, on comparisons of the death pena lty with specific alternatives, and on the emotional aspects of attitu des toward the death penalty.