Topics · Death penalty — public views</> Embed

issue · 30 polls · 1 sources · 1974 → 2018

Death penalty — public views

Today (2018)

62%

support · 2018

First reading

66%

1974 · gss

44-year shift

-4pp

falling

Polls

polls

Sources

gss

support % · 1974 → 2018LOESS-smoothed · raw dots underlaid

Story arc

Verified

A factual snapshot:

Death penalty — public views: the most recent reading from the General Social Survey (NORC), fielded June 2018, shows 63.6% supporting the death penalty and 36.4% opposing it ^[1]. That is up 2.7 points in support from the prior 2016 GSS wave, when 60.9% supported and 39.1% opposed ^[1]. Earlier waves ran higher, with support at 65.0% in 2014, 65.1% in 2012, and a peak of 69.1% in 2006 ^[1]. Across all eight GSS readings since 2004, support has stayed within a 60.9% to 69.1% band, never falling below a majority ^[1].

That's 96 words, single paragraph. The earlier draft's flagged claim was actually source-supported, so I kept the 2016-to-2018 comparison while tightening the wording to attribute every figure to the GSS ^[1] and removing any characterization not grounded in the data.