The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths
Subtitle: The Politics of Crime Control
Publisher: Praeger Publishers; Praeger
Published: November 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780275997809
Subjects: Central government policies; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Sociology; Politics/International Relations; USA; Government - National; Penology; Political Science / Civil Rights; Political Freedom & Security - Civil Rights; Capital punishment; United States
Description: "The death penalty remains one of the most controversial issues in the United States. Its proponents claim many things in their defense of its continued application. For example, they claim that it deters crime, that death by lethal injection is painless and humane, that it is racially neutral, and that it provides "closure" to families of the victims. In this comprehensive review of the major death penalty issues, the authors systematically dismantle each one of these myths about capital punishment in a hard-hitting critique of how our social, political, and community leaders have used fear and myth (symbolic politics) to misrepresent the death penalty as a public policy issue. They successfully demonstrate how our political and community leaders have used myth and emotional appeals to misrepresent the facts about capital executions."--Jacket.