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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
DETERRENCE
AND THE
DEATH PENALTY
Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty
Daniel S. Nagin and John V. Pepper, Editors
Committee on Law and Justice
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Grant Number 2010-IJ-CX-0018 from the National Institute of Justice, Grant Number TRF09-01115 from the Tides Foundation, and the Proteus Action League (grant not numbered). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2012). Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty, Daniel S. Nagin and John V. Pepper, Eds. Committee on Law and Justice, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
COMMITTEE ON DETERRENCE AND THE DEATH PENALTY
DANIEL S. NAGIN (Chair), H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University
KERWIN K. CHARLES, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago
PHILIP J. COOK, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
STEVEN N. DURLAUF, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
AMELIA M. HAVILAND, H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University
GERARD E. LYNCH, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics, Northwestern University
JAMES Q. WILSON, School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University, and Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Boston College
JANE L. ROSS, Study Director
JOHN V. PEPPER, Consultant
KEIKO ONO, Senior Program Associate
CAROL HAYES, Christine Mirzayan Fellow
BARBARA BOYD, Administrative Associate
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE 2012
JEREMY TRAVIS (Chair), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
CARL C. BELL, Community Mental Health Council, Inc., Chicago, IL
JOHN J. DONOHUE, III, Stanford Law School, Stanford University
MARK A.R. KLEIMAN, Department of Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles
GARY LAFREE, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Maryland
JANET L. LAURITSEN, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis
GLENN C. LOURY, Department of Economics, Brown University
CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics, Northwestern University
TERRIE E. MOFFITT, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
DANIEL S. NAGIN, H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University
RUTH D. PETERSON, Criminal Justice Research Center, Ohio State University
ANNE MORRISON PIEHL, Department of Economics and Program in Criminal Justice, Rutgers University
DANIEL B. PRIETO, Public Sector Strategy & Innovation, IBM Global Business Services, Washington, DC
ROBERT J. SAMPSON, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
DAVID WEISBURD, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University
CATHY SPATZ WIDOM, Psychology Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
PAUL K. WORMELI, Integrated Justice Information Systems, Ashburn, VA
JANE L. ROSS, Director
BARBARA BOYD, Administrative Associate
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
James Q. Wilson
1931-2012
“I’ve tried to follow the facts wherever they land.”
This report is dedicated to James Q. Wilson for his long service to the National Research Council, his influential career of scholarship and public service, and his unblinking commitment to the principle that science requires us to interpret the evidence as it is, not as we want it to be.
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
M ore than three decades ago, in Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates, the National Research Council (NRC) (1978, p. 9) concluded that “available studies provide no useful evidence on the deterrent effect of capital punishment.” That report was issued 2 years after the Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia ended a 4-year moratorium on execution in the United States. In the 35 years since the publication of that report, especially in recent years, a considerable number of post-Gregg studies have attempted to estimate the effect of the legal status or the actual implementation of the death penalty on homicide rates. Those studies have reached widely varying conclusions.
Against this background, the NRC formed the Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty to address whether the available evidence provides a reasonable basis for drawing conclusions about the magnitude of the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates. At a workshop on April 28-29, 2011, workshop papers commissioned by the committee (which will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology) were presented and discussed by their authors: Robert J. Apel, University at Albany, State University of New York; Aaron Chalfin, University of California, Berkeley; Chao Fu, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Justin McCrary, University of California, Berkeley; Salvador Navarro, University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada; John V. Pepper, University of Virginia; and Steven Raphael, University of California, Berkeley. The workshop also included comments on the presentations by Jeffrey Grogger, University of Chicago; Guido Imbens, Harvard University; Kenneth C. Land, Duke
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
University; Christopher Sims, Princeton University; and Justin Wolfers, University of Pennsylvania.
The committee appreciates the contributions of these presenters and those who commented on them to the development of its report. In addition, John V. Pepper provided invaluable assistance to the committee throughout its deliberations. The work of staff members from the Committee on Law and Justice of the NRC facilitated the committee’s work in many ways. Thanks are due to Jane L. Ross, study director; Keiko Ono, senior program associate; Carol Hayes, Christine Mirzayan fellow; and Barbara Boyd, administrative coordinator.
Many individuals at the NRC assisted the committee. We thank Kirsten Sampson-Snyder, who shepherded the report through the NRC review process, Eugenia Grohman, who edited the draft report, and Yvonne Wise, for processing the report through final production.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We thank the following individuals for their review of this report: John Donohue, III, Stanford Law School, Stanford University; Andrew Gelman, Department of Statistics and Department of Political Science, Columbia University; Kenneth C. Land, Department of Sociology, Duke University; Candice Odgers, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine; Ricardo Reis, Department of Economics, Columbia University; Greg Ridgeway, RAND Safety and Justice Program, RAND Center on Quality Policing, RAND Corporation; Robert J. Sampson, Department of Sociology, Harvard University; Dick Thornburgh, Counsel, K&L Gates, LLP, and former Attorney General of the United States; Petra E. Todd, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania; and Michael Tonry, School of Law, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Gary LaFree, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland, and John T. Monahan, University of Virginia Law School. Appointed by the NRC, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully con-
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
sidered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
This report is dedicated to James Q. Wilson. Jim was a valued member of this and many other NRC committees on which he served over his long and influential career. Jim’s contributions to scholarship and public service will stand as enduring testimony to the power of his intellect. He was a quiet but forceful proponent for balanced and clear-minded assessment of the evidence. I first met Jim in my role as a staff member of the 1978 NRC committee that resulted in report Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effect of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates. I was deeply impressed by the clarity of his thought and gift for communication. He served as a role model for me ever since. I was thus especially honored that he agreed to serve on this committee, which was greatly aided by his constructive participation throughout our deliberations.
Daniel S. Nagin, Chair
Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2012. Deterrence and the Death Penalty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13363.
