Toward an Understanding of Aggregate Death Penalty Opinion Change: A Possible Role for Popular Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2013.02.5Keywords:
Death penalty opinion, capital punishment, media, death penalty songs, musicAbstract
Abstract: This study examines the relationship between popular music; specifically, death penalty songs, and aggregate death penalty opinion change utilizing an exploratory time series analysis. An assumption of this study is that the public is made conscious of the death penalty as a salient issue through the popular media, e.g., newspaper stories, magazine articles, movies, television programs, and music. Results of this study support the hypotheses that public consciousness about the death penalty as well as changes in aggregate death penalty opinion are associated with the content of popular media in the form of death penalty songs. As the number of death penalty songs increases in a year, death penalty support decreases two years later.References
Armstrong, Edward. 1993. The rhetoric of vioelnce in rap and country music. Sociological Inquiry 63: 64-83.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1993.tb00202.x
Baldus, David C., and George Woodworth. 1998. Racial discrimination and the death penalty: An empirical and legal overview. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Baumgartner, Frank R., Suzanna L. DeBoef, and Amber E. Boydstun. 2008. The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beckett, Katheine and Ted Sasson. 2000. The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Bedau, Hugo Adam. 1987. Death is Different: Studies in the Morality, Law, and Politics of Capital Punishment. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Binder, Amy. 1993. Constructing racial rhetoric: Media depictions of harm in heavy metal and rap music. American Sociological Review 58: 753-767.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2095949
Bohm, Robert M. 1990. Death penalty opinions: Effects of a classroom experience and public commitment.” Sociological Inquiry 60: 285-297.
Bohm, Robert M. 1992. Toward an understanding of death penalty opinion change in the United States: The pivotal years, 1966 and 1967.” Humanity and Society 16: 524-542.
Bohm, Robert M. 2012. DEATHQUEST: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States. Waltham, MA: Elsevier/Anderson.
Bohm, Robert M., and Brenda L.Vogel. 2004. More than ten years after: The long-term stability of informed death penalty opinions. Journal of Criminal Justice 32: 307-327.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2004.04.003
Bohm, Robert M., Louise J. Clark, and Adrian F. Aveni. 1990. The influence of knowledge on death penalty opinions: An experimental test. Justice Quarterly 7: 175-188.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418829000090521
Bohm, Robert M., Louise J. Clark, and Adrian F. Aveni. 1991. Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A test of the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 28: 360-387.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022427891028003006
Bohm, Robert M., Ronald E. Vogel, and Albert A. Maisto. 1993. Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A panel study. Journal of Criminal Justice 21: 29-45.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(93)90004-7
Bright, Stephen B. 1998. The politics of capital punishment: The sacrifice of fairness for executions. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Bright, Stephen B. and Patrick J. Keenan. 1995. Judges and the politics of death: Deciding between the Bill of Rights and the next election in capital cases. Boston University Law Review 75: 759-835.
Burnett, Cathleen. 2002. Justice Denied: Clemency Appeals in Death Penalty Cases. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Callahan, Lisa, James R. Acker, and Catherine Cerulli. 2000. Accommodating death penalty legislation: Personal and professional views of assistant district attorneys toward capital punishment.” American Journal of Criminal Justice 25: 15-29.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02886808
Claussen, Dane S. 2004. Cognitive dissonance, media illiteracy, and public opinion on news media- American Behavioral Scientist, 48 (2): 212-218.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764204267265
Chermak, Steven. 1998. The presentation of drugs in the news media: The news sources involved in the construction of social problems. In Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems (eds.) Potter, G. and Kappeler, V. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Cochran, John K. and Mitchell B. Chamlin. 2005. Can information change public opinion?: Another test of the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Criminal Justice 33: 573-584.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.08.006
Cochran, John K., Beth Sanders, and Mitchell B. Chamlin. 2006. Profiles in change: An alternative look at the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Criminal Justice 17: 205-226.
Cohen, S. 2002. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers. London: UK: Routledge.
Dickson, Brent E. 2006. Effects of capital punishment on the justice system: Reflections of a state supreme court justice. Judicature 89: 278-281.
Dieter, Richard C. 1996. Killing for Votes: The Dangers of Politicizing the Death Penalty Process. Washington, DC: The Death Penalty Information Center.
Dowler, Kenneth. 2003. Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 10(2): 109-126
Ellsworth, Phoebe C. and Lee Ross. 1983. Public opinion and capital punishment: A close examination of the views of abolitionists and retentionists. Crime and Delinquency 29: 116-169.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001112878302900105
Fishman, Mark. 1978. Crime waves as ideology. Social Problems, 25 (5), 531-543.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/800102
Gelles, Richard J., and Murray A. Straus. 1976. Family experience and public support of the death penalty. In Capital Punishment in the United States, (eds.) Hugo Adam Bedau and C. M. Pierce. New York: AMS.
Green, Melanie, and Timothy Brock. 2000. The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79: 701-721.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701
Haines, Herbert H. 1996. Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994. New York: Oxford University Press.
Holbert, Lance, Dhavan Shah, and Nojin Kwak. 2004. Fear, authority and justice: Crime-related TV viewing and endorsements of capital punishment and gun ownership. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 81: 343-363.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100208
Hunnicutt, Gwen, and Kristy Andrews. 2009. Tragic narratives in popular Cutlure: Depictions of homicide in rap music. Sociological Forum 24: 611-630.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01122.x
Jenkins, P. 1998. The ice age: The social construction of a drug panic. In Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems. (eds.) Potter, G. and Kappeler, V., Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Kappeler, Victor., Mark Blumberg, and Gary Potter. 2000. The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice. 3d edition. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Kiousis, Spiro. 2001. Public trust or mistrust? Perceptions of media credibility in the information age. Mass Communication & Society 4(4): 381-403.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0404_4
Kobil, Daniel T. 2003. The evolving role of clemency in capital cases. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, 2nd ed. (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Kohlberg, Lawrence and Daniel Elfenbein. 1975. The development of moral judgments concerning capital punishment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 45: 614-640.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1975.tb01191.x
Kubrin, Charis. 2005. Ganstas, thugs, and hustlas: Identity and the code of the street in rap music. Social Problems 52: 360-378.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2005.52.3.360
Lawrence, Richard, and Mueller, David. 2003. School shootings and the man-bites-dog criterion of newsworthiness. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 1(4): 330-345.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1541204003255842
Lipschultz, Jeremy and Michael Hilt. 1999. Mass media and the death penalty: Social construciton of three Nebraska exectuions. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 43: 236-252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838159909364487
Lord, Charles G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 2098-2109.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098
Niven, David. 2002. Blostering an illusory majority: The effects of the media’s portrayla of death penalty support. Social science Quarterly 83: 671-689.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-6237.00108
Petty, Richard, and J. T. Cacioppo. 1981. Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Petty, Richard, and J. T. Cacioppo. 1986. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Petty, Richard and D. T. Wegener. 1999. The elaboration likelihood model: Current status and controversies. In Dual Process Theories in Social Psychology. (eds). S. Chaiken and Y. Trope. New York; Guilford Press.
Petty, Richard, Joseph Priester, and Pablo Brinol. 2002. Mass media attitude change: Implications of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (eds.) Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Roomer, D., Jamieson, K., and Aday, S. (2003). Television news and the cultivation of fear of crime. Journal of Communication 53(l): 88-104.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb03007.x
Sarat, Austin and Neil Vidmar. 1976. Public opinion, the death penalty, and the eighth amendment: Testing the Marshall hypothesis. Wisconsin Law Review 17: 171-206.
Shrum L.J. 2002. Media consumption and perceptions of social reality: Effects and underlying processes. In Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (eds.) Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Slater, Michael and Donna Rouner. 2002. Entertainment-education and elaboration likelihood: Understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. Communication Theory 12: 173-191.
Slater, Michael, Donna Rouner, and Marilee Long. 2006. Television dramas and support for controversial public policies: Effects and mechanisms. Journal of Communication 56: 235-252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00017.x
Surette, Raymond. 2007. Media, Crime and Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
White, Welsh S. 1987. The Death Penalty in the Eighties: An Examination of the Modern System of Capital Punishment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Wright, Harold O., Jr., Robert M. Bohm, and Katherine M. Jamieson. 1995. A comparison of uninformed and informed death penalty opinions: A replication and expansion. American Journal of Criminal Justice 20: 57-87.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02886118
Zimring, Franklin E. 2003. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. New York: Oxford University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1993.tb00202.x
Baldus, David C., and George Woodworth. 1998. Racial discrimination and the death penalty: An empirical and legal overview. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Baumgartner, Frank R., Suzanna L. DeBoef, and Amber E. Boydstun. 2008. The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beckett, Katheine and Ted Sasson. 2000. The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Bedau, Hugo Adam. 1987. Death is Different: Studies in the Morality, Law, and Politics of Capital Punishment. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Binder, Amy. 1993. Constructing racial rhetoric: Media depictions of harm in heavy metal and rap music. American Sociological Review 58: 753-767.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2095949
Bohm, Robert M. 1990. Death penalty opinions: Effects of a classroom experience and public commitment.” Sociological Inquiry 60: 285-297.
Bohm, Robert M. 1992. Toward an understanding of death penalty opinion change in the United States: The pivotal years, 1966 and 1967.” Humanity and Society 16: 524-542.
Bohm, Robert M. 2012. DEATHQUEST: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States. Waltham, MA: Elsevier/Anderson.
Bohm, Robert M., and Brenda L.Vogel. 2004. More than ten years after: The long-term stability of informed death penalty opinions. Journal of Criminal Justice 32: 307-327.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2004.04.003
Bohm, Robert M., Louise J. Clark, and Adrian F. Aveni. 1990. The influence of knowledge on death penalty opinions: An experimental test. Justice Quarterly 7: 175-188.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418829000090521
Bohm, Robert M., Louise J. Clark, and Adrian F. Aveni. 1991. Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A test of the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 28: 360-387.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022427891028003006
Bohm, Robert M., Ronald E. Vogel, and Albert A. Maisto. 1993. Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A panel study. Journal of Criminal Justice 21: 29-45.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(93)90004-7
Bright, Stephen B. 1998. The politics of capital punishment: The sacrifice of fairness for executions. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Bright, Stephen B. and Patrick J. Keenan. 1995. Judges and the politics of death: Deciding between the Bill of Rights and the next election in capital cases. Boston University Law Review 75: 759-835.
Burnett, Cathleen. 2002. Justice Denied: Clemency Appeals in Death Penalty Cases. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Callahan, Lisa, James R. Acker, and Catherine Cerulli. 2000. Accommodating death penalty legislation: Personal and professional views of assistant district attorneys toward capital punishment.” American Journal of Criminal Justice 25: 15-29.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02886808
Claussen, Dane S. 2004. Cognitive dissonance, media illiteracy, and public opinion on news media- American Behavioral Scientist, 48 (2): 212-218.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764204267265
Chermak, Steven. 1998. The presentation of drugs in the news media: The news sources involved in the construction of social problems. In Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems (eds.) Potter, G. and Kappeler, V. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Cochran, John K. and Mitchell B. Chamlin. 2005. Can information change public opinion?: Another test of the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Criminal Justice 33: 573-584.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.08.006
Cochran, John K., Beth Sanders, and Mitchell B. Chamlin. 2006. Profiles in change: An alternative look at the Marshall hypotheses. Journal of Criminal Justice 17: 205-226.
Cohen, S. 2002. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers. London: UK: Routledge.
Dickson, Brent E. 2006. Effects of capital punishment on the justice system: Reflections of a state supreme court justice. Judicature 89: 278-281.
Dieter, Richard C. 1996. Killing for Votes: The Dangers of Politicizing the Death Penalty Process. Washington, DC: The Death Penalty Information Center.
Dowler, Kenneth. 2003. Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 10(2): 109-126
Ellsworth, Phoebe C. and Lee Ross. 1983. Public opinion and capital punishment: A close examination of the views of abolitionists and retentionists. Crime and Delinquency 29: 116-169.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001112878302900105
Fishman, Mark. 1978. Crime waves as ideology. Social Problems, 25 (5), 531-543.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/800102
Gelles, Richard J., and Murray A. Straus. 1976. Family experience and public support of the death penalty. In Capital Punishment in the United States, (eds.) Hugo Adam Bedau and C. M. Pierce. New York: AMS.
Green, Melanie, and Timothy Brock. 2000. The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79: 701-721.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701
Haines, Herbert H. 1996. Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994. New York: Oxford University Press.
Holbert, Lance, Dhavan Shah, and Nojin Kwak. 2004. Fear, authority and justice: Crime-related TV viewing and endorsements of capital punishment and gun ownership. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 81: 343-363.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100208
Hunnicutt, Gwen, and Kristy Andrews. 2009. Tragic narratives in popular Cutlure: Depictions of homicide in rap music. Sociological Forum 24: 611-630.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01122.x
Jenkins, P. 1998. The ice age: The social construction of a drug panic. In Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems. (eds.) Potter, G. and Kappeler, V., Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Kappeler, Victor., Mark Blumberg, and Gary Potter. 2000. The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice. 3d edition. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Kiousis, Spiro. 2001. Public trust or mistrust? Perceptions of media credibility in the information age. Mass Communication & Society 4(4): 381-403.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0404_4
Kobil, Daniel T. 2003. The evolving role of clemency in capital cases. In America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction, 2nd ed. (eds.) James R. Acker, Robert M. Bohm, and Charles S. Lanier. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Kohlberg, Lawrence and Daniel Elfenbein. 1975. The development of moral judgments concerning capital punishment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 45: 614-640.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1975.tb01191.x
Kubrin, Charis. 2005. Ganstas, thugs, and hustlas: Identity and the code of the street in rap music. Social Problems 52: 360-378.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.2005.52.3.360
Lawrence, Richard, and Mueller, David. 2003. School shootings and the man-bites-dog criterion of newsworthiness. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 1(4): 330-345.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1541204003255842
Lipschultz, Jeremy and Michael Hilt. 1999. Mass media and the death penalty: Social construciton of three Nebraska exectuions. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 43: 236-252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838159909364487
Lord, Charles G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 2098-2109.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098
Niven, David. 2002. Blostering an illusory majority: The effects of the media’s portrayla of death penalty support. Social science Quarterly 83: 671-689.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-6237.00108
Petty, Richard, and J. T. Cacioppo. 1981. Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Petty, Richard, and J. T. Cacioppo. 1986. Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Petty, Richard and D. T. Wegener. 1999. The elaboration likelihood model: Current status and controversies. In Dual Process Theories in Social Psychology. (eds). S. Chaiken and Y. Trope. New York; Guilford Press.
Petty, Richard, Joseph Priester, and Pablo Brinol. 2002. Mass media attitude change: Implications of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (eds.) Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Roomer, D., Jamieson, K., and Aday, S. (2003). Television news and the cultivation of fear of crime. Journal of Communication 53(l): 88-104.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb03007.x
Sarat, Austin and Neil Vidmar. 1976. Public opinion, the death penalty, and the eighth amendment: Testing the Marshall hypothesis. Wisconsin Law Review 17: 171-206.
Shrum L.J. 2002. Media consumption and perceptions of social reality: Effects and underlying processes. In Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (eds.) Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Slater, Michael and Donna Rouner. 2002. Entertainment-education and elaboration likelihood: Understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. Communication Theory 12: 173-191.
Slater, Michael, Donna Rouner, and Marilee Long. 2006. Television dramas and support for controversial public policies: Effects and mechanisms. Journal of Communication 56: 235-252.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00017.x
Surette, Raymond. 2007. Media, Crime and Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
White, Welsh S. 1987. The Death Penalty in the Eighties: An Examination of the Modern System of Capital Punishment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Wright, Harold O., Jr., Robert M. Bohm, and Katherine M. Jamieson. 1995. A comparison of uninformed and informed death penalty opinions: A replication and expansion. American Journal of Criminal Justice 20: 57-87.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02886118
Zimring, Franklin E. 2003. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. New York: Oxford University Press.
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2013-04-04
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Bohm, R. M., & Surette, R. (2013). Toward an Understanding of Aggregate Death Penalty Opinion Change: A Possible Role for Popular Music. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2, 32–56. https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2013.02.5
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