Public attitudes to the death penalty in Japan
Figure 9: Distribution of knowledge scores for the experimental group
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Notes: 1) Total number of respondents: n=535 2) Knowledge scale ranged between 7 and 28 3) Mean=21.95, median=23, standard deviation=4.62, minimum=7 and maximum=28
When examining knowledge of each information item, less than half of the respondents answered that they were informed about all items (“I knew all about it” and “I roughly knew most of it”; see Figure 30). Out of a total of 535 respondents who answered all information items from the experimental group, there were only two who selected “I knew all about it” for all seven items.94
Te
highest knowledge recorded was of the “execution process”, though only 16% of respondents selected that they knew “all about it”.
Respondents were least aware of the “possibility of parole for life prisoners”, with only 1% claiming “I knew all about it”. Tis information item may have increased respondents’ knowledge when looking at the reasons for retention selected by the experimental group. Te item “Japan does not have life imprisonment without parole” was one of the reasons for retention which was statistically significant, with a smaller proportion of respondents in the experimental group selecting this option.
Similarly, the item “relationship between the death penalty and crime rates” (where only 4% selected “I knew all about it”) could also have influenced respondents in the experimental group in their selection of justifications for retention. While general deterrence was the third most selected reason for retention in the control group (42%), the same option was not as popular in the experimental group (25%), and the difference was found to be statistically significant.
94 Te two respondents were abolitionists who believed that the death penalty “should definitely be abolished” 47
Frequency
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