Religious Orientation, Race and Support for the Death Penalty

Abstract

This research addressed the relationship of religious orientation and race to attitudes toward the death penalty. Analysis of data from the 1988 General Social Survey suggested that fundamentalism, evangelism, and devotionalism play significant but substantively different roles in the structuring of death penalty attitudes. Moreover, the correlation of such religious variables with support for capital punishment was found to vary by race. In addition, the results of this study suggest the need for a theoretical clarification of certain concepts in the sociology of religion.