Race, Class, and the Death Penalty: Capital Punishment in American History

Howard W. Allen · Jerome M. Clubb

Jan. 2009 · State University of New York Press

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In Race, Class, and the Death Penalty, Howard W. Allen and Jerome M. Clubb examine historical trends in the use of capital punishment in the United States. Employing empirical data, the authors explore how frequently the death penalty has been used and how its frequency of use has changed, where the death penalty was used most often, the offenses charged, and the characteristics of the executed. Not surprisingly, their findings indicate that minority groups—particularly African Americans and those of lower social and economic status in general—have been executed in disproportionate numbers. The authors conclude that while the use of the death penalty has progressively declined, and the range of capital offenses has narrowed, disparities in the use of capital punishment between social groups and regions that appeared in the colonial period have persisted into the twenty-first century.

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Howard W. Allen is Professor of History Emeritus at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jerome M. Clubb is Research Scientist and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Michigan. Both Allen and Clubb have written several books, including their coedited volume Electoral Change and Stability in American Political History.