Award Date

5-2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice

Department

Criminal Justice

First Committee Member

Hong Lu, Chair

Second Committee Member

Terence Miethe

Third Committee Member

Tamara Madensen

Graduate Faculty Representative

Anna Lukemeyer

Number of Pages

69

Abstract

The United States and China represent two of the leading nations that retain the death penalty in both law and practice. Research suggests that judges' sentencing decisions are based primarily on two factors, blameworthiness and dangerousness. Studies involving gender and sentencing in capital punishment cases tend to provide inconsistent findings. The current study uses case narratives to examine the direct and conjunctive effects of various factors on the sentencing decisions of violent female capital offenders in the United States and China. The findings suggest that the concepts of blameworthiness and dangerousness are distinctly defined in the United States and China. The study proposes that the differences observed in the capital offense sentencing practices of these two countries can be attributed to the distinct political, legal and social systems of the United States and China.

Keywords

Blameworthiness; China; Dangerousness; Death penalty; Female offenders; United States

Disciplines

Criminology and Criminal Justice

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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