DETERRENCE, BRUTALIZATION, AND THE DEATH-PENALTY - ANOTHER EXAMINATION OF OKLAHOMA RETURN TO CAPITAL-PUNISHMENT

A replication and extension of a weekly ARIMA analysis (1989-1991) by Cochran et al. (1994), which appeared in Criminology, confirms that Ok lahoma's return to capital punishment in 1990, after a 25-year morator ium, was followed by a significant increase in killings involving stra ngers. Moreover, a multivariate autoregressive analysis, which include s measures of the frequency of executions, the level of print media at tention devoted to executions, and selected sociodemographic variables , produced results consistent with the brutalization hypothesis for to tal homicides, as well as a variety of different types of killing invo lving both strangers and nonstrangers. No prior study has shown such s trong support for the capital punishment and brutalization argument. H owever, there is also a suggestion of a possible lagged deterrent effe ct for the level of media coverage of executions for nonfelony murders involving strangers. The analysis indicates that the impact of capita l punishment in Oklahoma during the 1989-1991 period was much more ext ensive than suggested by the earlier study. Recommendations are made f or further research examining additional jurisdictions and time period s to determine the generalizability of the patterns found for Oklahoma .