Modes of Capital Punishment: The Death Penalty in Historical Perspective
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Description
This chapter examines the longer-term history of capital punishment and the issue of whether there is a pattern beyond the contingent factors and individual histories underpinning capital punishment. It considers the importance of political considerations in shaping the history of the death penalty and the decisive breaks that have punctuated this history, especially between the early modern and the modern periods. It argues that history exhibits a general pattern from which important conclusions about the nature and development of capital punishment can be derived. It also discusses several trends that are related to the death penalty, including state formation and state power, liberalization, crime control and criminal justice, and rationalization.
Source Publication
America’s Death Penalty: Between Past and Present
Source Editors/Authors
David Garland, Randall McGowen, Michael Meranze
Publication Date
2011
Recommended Citation
Garland, David W., "Modes of Capital Punishment: The Death Penalty in Historical Perspective" (2011). Faculty Chapters. 660.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/660
