Gender, Religion and National Origin: Latinos' Attitude toward Capital Punishment

Abstract

Problem statement: Previous studies on attitudes toward capital punishment are heavily focused on comparisons between blacks and whites with little attention to the Latino population. This is problematic given the rapid growth of Latino population who is now the largest and fastest-growing ethnic minority in the United States. Approach: Empirical studies devoted exclusively to studying Latinos’ attitude toward capital punishment are few and thus, I focus on exclusively examining the Latino population utilizing 2007 Hispanic Religion Survey, which is the most recent survey that includes questions on Latinos’ attitude toward capital punishment. Results: I found that Latinos’ attitude toward capital punishment is driven by various demographic, religious and cultural factors. The most influential factors were gender, religion and the country of origin. Conclusion: Very few studies have examined Latinos’ attitude toward criminal justice policies in general and this study should be extended to study other criminal justice policies as well.