The gender gap in death penalty support: An exploratory study John K. Cochran ⁎, Beth A. Sanders Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SOC 107, Tampa, FL 33620-8100, United States Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Thomas More College, 333 Thomas More Parkway, Crestview Hills, KY 41017, United States abstract One of the more enduring observations in the study of death penalty support within the United States is the strong divide between males and females. Men have consistently shown significantly higher levels of support for capital punishment than women. This divide between males and females has appeared in nearly every survey, over time, and across a variety of methodological designs. Using data from the cumulative (1972-2002) data file for the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Surveys, this study attempted to understand the basis for this gender gap. It examined gender differences in socioeconomic status, gender inequality, gender socialization, religion/religiosity, political ideology, positions on right-to- life and other social issues, fear of crime and victimization experience, experience with the criminal justice system, philosophies of punishment, and attribution styles. The findings revealed that the effect of gender on capital punishment support continued to be robust despite controlling for the effects of all of these explanations. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Among the various known correlates of death penalty support, one of the strongest and most persistent predictors has been respondent's gender (Bohm, 1991, 1999, 2003). Men have been observed to be significantly more supportive of capital punishment than women. Bohm (1991) reported that the male-female difference in death penalty support (a mean difference of approximately twelve percent- age points across the numerous Gallup polls) was greater than that observed for any other socio-demographic characteristic other than race. This finding has been so robust that it has been observed in nearly every public opinion and social scientific survey undertaken in this country over the past fifty years. Specifically, Lester (1998) reviewed over forty studies on gender and death penalty support and found that in the vast majority of these studies, especially those published since 1985, the mean level of support for capital punishment was significantly higher among males than females. Moreover, the gap between males and females with regard to capital punishment has been enduring. That is, male and female levels of death penalty support have almost always increased and decreased over time in the same direction, revealing nearly identical/parallel trends (Bohm, 1991). Finally, while there has been occasional evidence of a slight narrowing or widening of this gap, such variation was either idiosyncratic, or if systematic, has eluded empirical attempts at explanation (Applegate, Cullen, & Fisher, 2002; Gault & Sabini, 2000; Hurwitz & Smithey, 1998; Leiber, 2000; Robbers, 2006; Stack, 2000). This is not to imply that the scholarly community has completely neglected to examine the gender-death penalty relationship. In fact, the authors found a small body of research that has begun to delineate the various factors which account for why people support/oppose capital punishment. These studies had observed both common and gender-specific correlates of support for men and women. None of these studies, however, was able to fully account for the persistent gender gap on this issue. While some of these studies identified unique bases for male and female support/opposition (Applegate et al., 2002; Gault & Sabini, 2000; Hurwitz & Smithey, 1998; Leiber, 2000; Robbers, 2006; Whitehead & Blankenship, 2000), more typically, research on this topic found that women who supported capital punishment were characterized by a similar profile as men who supported it (Stack, 2000). That is, female proponents of capital punishment tended to be White, married, political conservatives, had high incomes, came from middle- and upper-class backgrounds, and perceived that the courts were too lenient with criminals (Bohm, 1999). When the influences of these common and gender-specific correlates of death penalty support were controlled, the gender effect remained robust and statistically significant. For the authors, this fact (i.e., the strong, persistent, and apparently undiminishable gap between men and women with regard to their levels of death penalty support) posed such an interesting problem that it served as the basis for this exploratory study. In fact, Cullen, Fisher, and Applegate (2000, p. 264) indicated that gender differences in public opinion about punishment was a topic that warranted “detailed investigation.” Similarly, Kelly and Braithwaite (1990, p. 547) opined that “something about being a woman makes one less willing to take a life in punishment for crime” and that “[t]his is an interesting puzzle for future research.” To address this problem, researchers need longitudinal Journal of Criminal Justice 37 (2009) 525–533 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 813 974 9589; fax: +1 813 974 2803. E-mail address: cochran@cas.usf.edu (J.K. Cochran). 0047-2352/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.09.001 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Criminal Justice