2024/03/31 by Louis Chuang, Jacob Harris, Melissa S. Jones · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Intimate Partner and Family Violence
paper · doi:10.1111/jssr.12912
openalex publication_date 2024/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/27
Abstract How do racial attitudes affect the relationship between religion and support for capital punishment? Past research has clearly established important links between religion, racial attitudes, and capital punishment. Yet, it remains unclear how racial attitudes affect this relationship. We examine this question using a large sample of respondents from the General Social Survey from 1994 to 2018. We find evidence of a strong moderating effect where the relationship between religion and support for capital punishment varies considerably contingent on racial resentment. At high levels of racial resentment, support for capital punishment is uniformly high across all religious traditions while there are large disparities at low levels of racial resentment. Thus, strongly held, prejudicial racial attitudes overshadow the association between religion and support for capital punishment. Future research should more seriously consider the racial dynamics embedded religion and punishment.