Victim-offender race and support for capital punishment: A factorial design approach

A factorial design methodology is used in an experiment to examine whether members of the general public (N = 343 students at a southern US university) are more supportive of capital punishment when asked to rate a vignette describing a murder involving a white victim & black offender as opposed to other victim-offender racial combinations. Results suggest that the race of the offender, but not the victim, has a significant influence on support for capital punishment. Thus, procedural safeguards alone may be unable to eliminate racial bias in capital sentencing. 3 Tables, 53 References. Adapted from the source document.