Death Penalty Opinions: A Classroom Experience and Public Commitment |
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| Authors: | Robert M. Bohm |
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| Affiliation: | Robert M. Bohm is associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He taught at Jacksonville State University in Alabama for ten years. He received a Ph.D. in criminology from Florida State University in 1980, an M.A. in secondary education from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1975, and an A.B. in psychology from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1972. His research and teaching interests are varied but include the death penalty, especially American death penalty opinion, crime causation, and social control. |
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| Abstract: | ![]()
This study attempts to identify stimuli that produce changes in death penalty opinions and to determine whether public commitment to a death penalty opinion has an effect on that opinion. Consistent with previously reported findings, the results of this study suggest that public commitment has a substantial inhibitory effect on opinion change. Reasons for both changing and maintaining death penalty opinions are provided, and the implications of the research are discussed. |
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