NCJ Number
185744
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 685-706
Editor(s)
Finn-Aage Esbensen
Date Published
December 2000
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Weekly time series data on the level and type of criminal homicide incidents in California between 1989 and 1995 were used to assess the impact of the execution of Robert Alton Harris in 1992 on the incidence of homicide in California.
Abstract
California received national attention in April 1992 when Harris was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin. The execution of Harris marked a re-introduction of the death penalty in California after a 25-year moratorium. To analyze the impact of the execution, criminal homicides were disaggregated into forms of murder highly likely to be affected by capital punishment--felony murders of non-strangers for which a deterrent effect was predicted and argument-based murders of strangers for which a brutalization effect was predicted. On the basis of an auto-regressive, integrated moving average approach to time series analysis, and as predicted, findings showed a significant decline in the level of non-stranger felony murders and a significant increase in the level of argument-based murders of strangers in the period following the execution. Moreover, the increase in argument-based stranger murders associated with the execution endured across a subsequent execution period, while the decline in non-stranger felony murders shifted to the subsequent execution period. The authors indicate the policy implications of the findings involve efforts at community building; that is, a more communitarian society might reduce criminal activity so effectively as to eliminate the perceived need for drastic measures of control such as capital punishment. 76 references and 3 tables