DEATH PENALTY
WHEN LIFE GENERATES DEATH (LEGALLY)

POLLS

In Italy death penalty was abolished for every crime in 1994. But how come, as most the Italians are pro capital punishment?

	Question: "Do you think that for extremley serious crimes there should be death penalty?"
	Question: "Do you think that for any of these crimes there should be death penalty?"
	Synthesis of attitude towards death penalty
	Reasons to justify one's own attitude
	Distinction by sex, age and education

Table 1. Question: "Do you think that for extremley serious crimes there should be death penalty?"

	1949	1953	1974	1982	1997
Pros	71	55	67	57	58
Cons	29	45	33	43	42
Total	100	100	100	100	100

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Table 2. Question: "Do you think that for any of these crimes there should be death penalty?"

	Yes	No	Total
Sadic murderers against defenceless and innocent people	66	34	100
People responsible of massacres	62	38	100
People responsible of kidnapping with murder	61	39	100
Murderous terrorists taken with weapons in their hand	54	46	100
Traytors in war-time	25	75	100

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Table 3. Synthesis of attitude towards death penalty.

Pro in general and in at least one specific case	58
Con in general but pro in at least in one specific case	13
Con in general and in all specific cases	29
Total	100

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Table 4. Reasons to justify one's own attitude.

Pro because:
Death penalty only can avenge the murder of an innocent	6
Fear of death only can discourage possible criminals	29
Maintainig criminals for all their lives is only a weight for the community	8
If a criminal get free he can kill again	15
Con because:
It's not death penalty that is able to stop criminals	8
You can't risk to sentence an innocent to death	7
Life imprisonment is enough to defend the society	5
Even the worst criminal can repent and change	3
Mankind can't, for any reason, kill another man	19
Totale	100

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Table 5. Distinction by sex, age and education.

	Ethical yes	Utilit. yes	Contradict. area.	Utilit. no	Ethical no	Tot. yes	Tot. no
Male	5	53	12	15	15	58	30
Female	7	50	14	12	17	57	29
Until 24 years	6	40	18	15	21	46	36
25-34 years	3	50	11	20	16	53	36
35-44 years	6	49	14	14	17	55	31
45-54 years	6	59	14	9	13	65	22
55 years and over	9	57	10	10	14	66	24
Degree	5	26	8	28	33	31	61
Italian senior middle school	2	37	16	20	25	39	45
Italian junior middle school	5	49	15	14	17	54	31
Italian elementary school	7	59	13	10	11	66	24
No educational qualifications	11	59	10	8	12	70	20

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