Research Guides

Capital Punishment

Reference Books || Indexes, Abstracts, and Full Text Sources || Statistics || Internet Sources

 REFERENCE BOOKS.

 Capital Punishment. 2000.

Presents an overview of the issues; a chronology, information on recent cases, events, and laws; a glossary of terms; and an annotated bibliography on capital punishment. Mugar Ref. X KF9227 C2 F53 2000

 

Capital Punishment. 2002.

Following a report from CQ Researcher on the death penalty, this volume explains the history of the death penalty in the U.S. from the 1970s to the present, presents state-by-state and federal statistics, and explores the organizations and individuals involved. Mugar Ref. X HV8699 U5 G66 2002.

 

Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. 2nd ed. 2001.

Provides overview of capital punishment, history, a chronology, biographies, facts and figures, and resources. Mugar Ref. X HV8699 U5 K76 2001.

 

Capital Punishment in America: An Annotated Bibliography. 1988.

Annotated list of approximately 1000 books, articles, Congressional documents and Supreme Court decisions relating to capital punishment. Mugar Ref. X Z5703.4 C36 R3 1988.

 

Encyclopedia of Bioethics. 3rd ed. 5 vols. 2004.

Discusses the moral and ethical issues concerning such topics as the death penalty. Science and Engineering Library Ref. QH332 E52 2004.

 

Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment. 1998.

Nonpartisan examination of capital punishment worldwide from the 17th century B.C. (Hammurabi's Code) to 1997. Entries include biographies, U.S. court cases, methods of execution throughout history, statistics, and a variety of concepts and issues ranging from the use of the Internet in the capital punishment debate to an account of Socrates' death scene. The volume includes a chronology, a bibliography, and an index. Mugar Ref. X HV8694 G76 1998.

 

Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. 2nd ed. 4 vols. 2002.

Contains scholarly articles concerning the causes of crime, criminal behavior, criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal justice systems, and the prevention, punishment, and treatment of crime. Mugar Ref. X HV6017 E52 2002.

 

Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior. 4 vols. 2000.

Comprehensive encyclopedia covering criminology and social deviance under four broad categories: historical, conceptual, and theoretical issues; crime and juvenile delinquency; sexual deviance; and self destructive behavior and disvalued identity. The 500+ entries cover such topics as capital punishment, and the death penalty: execution in the United States Mugar Ref. X HV 6017 E53 2000.

 

Encyclopedia of Ethics. 3 vols. 2001.

Contains more than 500 articles on topics in ethics and ethical theory, perennial moral problems, and political, social, religious and legal theory, including capital punishment and homicide. Mugar Ref. X BJ63 E45 2001.

 

Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. 2001.

Arranged alphabetically with lengthy articles on all aspects of life in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. Use the table of contents in volume 1, or the sytematic outline of contents and detailed subject index in volume 3 to locate your topic. Relevant topics include "capital punishment." Mugar Ref. X E169.1 E626 2001.

 INDEXES, ABSTRACTS AND FULL TEXT SOURCES.

 

 

 America: History and Life. 1964 - . (BU-px).

Indexes and abstracts periodical articles and dissertations in the field of North American history and culture, including native American. Look here for the historical perspective on capital punishment and murder.

 

ATLA Religion Database. 1949 - . (BU-px).

Indexes religion periodicals, essays in books and dissertations. Subjects include religious and moral aspects of capital punishment.

CQ Researcher. (ChRiv).

A full text resource offering basic background information on many contemporary issues of interest to Congress. An excellent starting point for research into major public issues, this source gives summary coverage to all sides of the issues along with extremely useful bibliographies.

 

Criminal Justice Abstracts. 1968 - . (BU-px)

Criminal justice database providing comprehensive coverage of international journals, books, reports, dissertations and unpublished papers on criminology and criminal justice. Coverage includes crime trends, crime prevention and deterrence, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, police, courts, punishment, sentencing and more.

Criminal Justice Periodicals Index. 1981 - . (BU-px).

More than 50 titles are available full-text, with abstracts and indexing for a further 140 titles. The major emphasis is on practical aspects of criminal justice, especially law enforcement and corrections. Available in print (1978-1998). Mugar Ref. X Z5118 C9 C74.

 

Criminology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection. (BU-px)

Includes the full-text of 21 journals published by SAGE and participating societies, some journals going back 23 years, encompassing over 5,000 articles. It covers such subjects as criminal justice, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, corrections, penology, policing, forensic psychology, and family and domestic violence.

 

Ethnic NewsWatch. 1990 - . (BU-px).

A comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.

 

GPO. 1976 - . (BU-px).

Index to U.S. government documents, including Congressional hearings and agency reports. There are links to some full-text documents.

 

Historical Abstracts. 1955 - . (BU-px).

Indexes and abstracts periodical literature and dissertations on world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada), from 1450 to the present. Look here for articles on the history of capital punishment.

 

LexisNexis Academic. (BU-px).

A full-text database that includes newspapers, wire services, transcripts of television and radio broadcasts, medical and health journals, trade journals, accounting literature, company financial reports, law reviews, statutory and case law, and public opinion polls. The database is international in scope, and includes newspapers in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, and German. Dates of coverage vary depending upon the publication.

 

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database (NCJRS). (BU-px).

"The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database contains summaries of more than 180,000 criminal justice publications, including Federal, State, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research."

 

NCJRS Virtual Library.

Access to 7000+ full-text publications on the NCJRS web site and the web sites of the agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

 

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service). 1915 - .

Index to articles, books and documents in public affairs and public policy, including capital punishment. Mugar Ref. X Z7163 F15. Available from 1972 onward on the BU Web (BU-px).

 

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. 1965 - .  (BU-px).

Comprehensive full-text database concerning topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.

 

Religion and Philosophy Collection. 1975 - . (BU-px).

Comprehensive database covering such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy. Includes 300+ full text journals in religion and philosophy.

 

Social Sciences Citation Index. 1956 - .

Interdisciplinary index to 4700+ journals and collected volumes in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides access by author, citation and subject. Mugar Ref. X Z7161 S65, (1956-1998). Searchable on the BU Web as Web of Science (1983- ) (BU-px).

 

Social Sciences Full Text. 1983 - . (ChRiv-px).

Indexes and abstracts core journals in such fields as anthropology, criminal justice and criminology, gender studies, geography, gerontology,  minority studies, social work, sociology, and urban studies. Includes full text of articles from 215+ journals as far back as 1995.  For retrospective searching (1907-1984) use Humanities and Social Sciences Retrospective, which indexes nearly 1,200 periodicals as early as 1907.

 

Sociological Abstracts. 1952 - . (BU-px).

Indexes and abstracts periodical articles, conference papers, proceedings, dissertations, and book reviews in sociology and related fields, including criminal justice.  

 

STATISTICS.

Capital Punishment. 1993 - .

Bureau of Justice Statistics annual bulletin on capital punishment. Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, (year), and of persons executed in (year). The report also summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year.

 

Capital Punishment Statistics.

Statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Department of Justice, with links to other data.

 

LexisNexis Statistical. (BU-px).

An online version of three indexes: American Statistics Index, covering 1973 to the present; Index to International Statistics, covering 1983 to the present; and Statistical Reference Index, covering 1980 to the present. The database indexes and abstracts social, demographic, and economic statistics published by the U.S. government, the U.N. and other international governmental organizations, as well as US state governments, and US private nonprofit and commercial associations and organizations. Most of these publications are available in the ASI, IIS, and SRI microfiche collections in Mugar Library. The PowerTables section of the database contains complete statistical tables, and may be searched separately.

Number of Persons Executed in the United States, 1930-2006.

List from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Number of Persons Under Sentence of Death, 1953-2005.

Bureau of Justice Statistics table.

 

Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. 1974 - .

Annual compendium of statistics compiled by governmental and private agencies. Mugar Ref. X HV7245 N37B. Latest edition available on the Web. Includes data on capital punishment and information on public attitudes toward the death penalty. Click the "index" button at the bottom of the page to get to the topics.

 

 INTERNET SOURCES.

Amnesty International Death Penalty Homepage.

" Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty (PADP) works toward the abolition of the death penalty worldwide."

 

Catholics Against Capital Punishment.

Seeks to "promote greater awareness of Catholic Church teachings that characterize capital punishment as inappropriate and unacceptable in today's world." Includes a bibliography of statements by U.S. Catholic Bishops on the death penalty from 1972 onward.

 

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

"Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) works to end the death penalty in the United States through aggressive campaigns of public education and the promotion of tactical grassroots activism. Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) recognizes and upholds the responsibility of society to protect everyone from people who are dangerous, in particular, those who are convicted murderers."

 

Cornell Law School Death Penalty Project.

"The Cornell Law School Death Penalty Project was organized in 1997. The Project is composed of several elements including a capital punishment clinic, a commitment to provide continuing education programs for capital defense attorneys and the active collection and study of data in this field." Includes links to other sites, including state statutes and constitutions.

 

Death Penalty Information and Resources.

The American Society of Criminology officially opposes the death penalty. Its links, however, include pro-death penalty documents, as well as statistical information, data on wrongful convictions, women on death row, and religion and the death penalty.

 

Death Penalty Information Center.

Large collection of data addressing such aspects of the issue as race and capital punishment, innocence, deterrence, juveniles, mental retardation, foreign nationals on death row in the U.S., executions, and the costs of the death penalty.

 

Death Penalty News and Updates.

Current news updates on pending executions, urgent actions, executions by year, names of individuals executed from 1977 to date and the names of their victims, and more.

 

Facts About Deterrence and the Death Penalty.

Graphs and other data compare the number of executions with the murder rate; murder rates in states with the death penalty vs. states without; law enforcement officers' views on deterrence; the brutalization effect of the death penalty; criminologists' views on deterrence; and more.

 

Juvenile Death Penalty Today.

Contains data on juvenile executions from 1973 through June 2003.

 

Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty.

"Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty, Inc. is the oldest death penalty abolition organization in the country, founded in 1928 in response to the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti."

 

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

"The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a coalition of nearly 150 national, state and local affiliates. We ally ourselves with religious organizations, civil and human rights groups, criminal justice agencies, and murder victim's families to work against violence and crime. It is our belief that the abolition of capital punishment is the most crucial part of that work." Includes fact sheets, death penalty alerts, and more.

 

Prison Activist Resource Center: Death Penalty.

Contains links to other sites, as well as a report showing that homicides rise during periods of executions, and a report showing which states use which forms of execution.

 

 

Pro Death-Penalty Resources.

Provides "links to, and papers about, the pro-death penalty position."

 

Pro-Death Penalty.Com.

"This site is being developed as a resource for those searching the internet for pro-death penalty information and resources. "

 

Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project.

"The Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project was created to galvanize and empower the religious community in the United States to work against capital punishment. Coordinated by the American Friends Service Committee's criminal justice program, the Project provides people of faith with the tools and resources they need to become effective advocates for abolition."

 

Resources for Keeping the Death Penalty Out of Massachusetts.

Includes information on recent legislation politicians' positions, and overturned wrongful convictions and links to federal resources.

 

Roper V. Simmons, U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Regarding the Juvenile Death Penalty.

Text of March 1, 2005 Supreme Court decision abolishing capital punishment for juvenile offenders, ruling 5 to 4 that it is unconstitutional to sentence anyone to death for a crime he or she committed while younger than 18.

 

Sara R. Ehrmann Papers.

Finding aid for the Sara R. Ehrmann Papers at Northeastern University's Archives and Special Collections. "The collection documents capital punishment in the United States in the twentieth century, the activities of the American League to Abolish Capital Punishment and the Massachusetts Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, and Sara Ehrmann's work opposing capital punishment."

 

Success at Long Last: The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Massachusetts, 1928 - 1984.

Boston College Third World Law Review article on the abolition of the death penalty in Massachusetts.

 

Supreme Court Decisions. 1990 - .

Full texts of syllabi (case summaries), decisions, concurring opinions and dissenting opinions. "This set of topic links works by searching the syllabi (case summaries) for related key terms" [such as capital punishment or death penalty]. "You can search directly for key words yourself in either the syllabi or full opinions. You can also use such a search to retrieve cases by words in a case name (or year or docket number) or opinion author."

 

Wrongful Murder Convictions.

Information on prisoners who were released because of court findings of strong evidence of innocence.