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Initial News Coverage of Radelet & Lacock Deterrence Study

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The Boulder Daily Camera reports, "Criminologists: Death penalty doesn't deter murder."  It's written by Elizabeth Miller.  Here's an extended excerpt:Eighty-eight percent of criminologists do not believe the death penalty deters murder, according to a study by University of Colorado sociology professor Michael Radelet released Tuesday. Radelet, who completed the study with attorney and CU sociology graduate student Traci Lacock, surveyed 77 leading criminologists on the death penalty?s effects on murder rates. The study was published in the Northwestern University School of Law?s Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. ?The deterrent effect of a punishment is really an effect of two things ? severity and certainty ? and it turns out that certainty is a more effective deterrent than severity,? Radelet said...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).