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The Death Penalty, 4th Edition

The Death Penalty, 4th Edition

Author: Roger Hood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199228478
Published In: March 2008
Format: Paperback , 504 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Fully up-to-date and substantially expanded new edition of the renowned study previously referred to by Amnesty International and others as the authority on the death penalty
Discusses all the recent major developments towards the abolition in the US of the death penalty for offenders who committed murder while under the age of 18, and explores a recent sharp fall in the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out
Explores significant new developments in China, particularly the requirement that the People's Supreme Court reviews all death sentences
Discusses the controversial policy of replacing capital punishment with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole
Brings up to date and reviews the latest evidence about the deterrent effects of capital punishment

New to this edition

Includes and additional chapter on alternatives to the death penalty
Includes an additional chapter on the role and influence of victims' families and victim interest movements
Expanded coverage of the impact of populist politics on prosecutors, judges, and legislators

The 4th edition of this authoritative study of the death penalty, now written jointly with Carolyn Hoyle, brings up-to-date developments in the movement to abolish the death penalty worldwide. It draws on Roger Hood's experience as consultant to the United Nations for the UN Secretary General's five-yearly surveys of capital punishment and on the latest information from non-governmental organizations and the academic literature.

Not only have many more countries abolished capital punishment but, even amongst those that retain it, the majority have been carrying out fewer executions. Legal challenges to the mandatory capital punishment have been successful, as has the pressure to abolish the death penalty for those who commit a capital crime when under the age of 18. This edition has more to say about the prospects that China will restrict and control the number of executions 'on the road to abolition'.

Yet, despite such advances, this book reveals many human rights abuses where the death penalty still exists. In some countries a wide range of crimes are still subject to capital punishment, and the authorities too often fail to meet the safeguards embodied in international human rights treaties to safeguard those facing the death penalty. There is evidence of police abuse, unfair trials, lack of access to competent defence counsel, excessive periods of time spent on in horrible conditions on 'death row', and public, painful forms of execution.

The authors engage with the latest debates on the realities of capital punishment, especially its justification as a uniquely effective deterrent; whether it can ever be administered equitably, without discrimination or error; and what influence relatives of victims should have in sentencing and on the public debate. For the first time, it also discussing the problem of devising an alternative to capital punishment, especially life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Readership: Scholars, students, human rights practitioners, and policy-makers interested in capital punishment, human rights, and criminal justice

Fully up-to-date and substantially expanded new edition of the renowned study previously referred to by Amnesty International and others as the authority on the death penalty
Discusses all the recent major developments towards the abolition in the US of the death penalty for offenders who committed murder while under the age of 18, and explores a recent sharp fall in the number of death sentences imposed and executions carried out
Explores significant new developments in China, particularly the requirement that the People's Supreme Court reviews all death sentences
Discusses the controversial policy of replacing capital punishment with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole
Brings up to date and reviews the latest evidence about the deterrent effects of capital punishment

New to this edition

Includes and additional chapter on alternatives to the death penalty
Includes an additional chapter on the role and influence of victims' families and victim interest movements
Expanded coverage of the impact of populist politics on prosecutors, judges, and legislators

Readership: Scholars, students, human rights practitioners, and policy-makers interested in capital punishment, human rights, and criminal justice

Roger Hood CBE QC (Hon) DCL FBA, Formerly Professor of Criminology and Fellow of All Souls Colege, Oxford, and Carolyn Hoyle, Reader in Criminology, Oxford University Centre for Criminology

"Its rigorous scholarship and the breadth of its coverage are hugely impressive features; its claim to "worldwide" coverage is no idle boast. This can fairly lay claim to being the closest thing to a definitive source-book on this important subject." - Paul Craig, Public Law

"This current edition of the series is an indispensible resource for serious students of the death penalty anywhere. It is also well written and happily devoid of academic pretension. We are long past the era when anyone could argue that trends in other nations are of no importance to domestic death penalty policy, and this is as true in the United States as in the PRC and Rwanda...What Hood and Hoyle provide their readers is a careful sifting of data together with a level of analysis beyond the capacity of resources like Amnesty International." - Punishment & Society 11 (2), 2009

"The prose is polished and eminently readable. The scholarship is what one expects from two top Oxford academics. The book is much more than an update of the third edition. It contains new chapters and develops subjects that were not treated in any detail by Professor Hood in the past. Its message is inspiring and its arguments are devastating. The fourth edition of The Death Penalty, A Worldwide Perspective book belongs in the library of all the readers of this journal." - William A. Schabas, Human Rights Quarterly 2009

"This fourth edition in 2008, takes the work to greater heights of being the last word on a worldwide perspective on the death penalty. No book on the subject gives such up-to-date authentic information on this grim subject." - The Commonwealth Lawyer