By: Eze Schupfer
Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Eze Schupfer
Eze Schupfer is a freshman at Wesleyan University majoring in Sociology and Government. Eze is originally from Los Angeles, California. Eze selected her course of research out of an interest in understanding how social factors like gender, race, and identity shape public opinion and policy, particularly in areas like the criminal justice system. In her free time, Eze enjoys reading, creative writing, hanging out with friends and horseback riding.
Abstract: This study examines how gender and race shape support for the death penalty using data from the 2024 General Social Survey. Prior research suggests that both gender and race are associated with attitudes toward punishment, with men and White respondents generally showing higher levels of support. Consistent with this, bivariate results indicate that men are more likely than women to favor the death penalty. However, logistic regression analyses show that when race is included, gender is no longer a statistically significant predictor, suggesting that racial differences help explain the observed gender gap. Race remains a strong and significant predictor, with White, Hispanic, and other non-Black respondents expressing higher levels of support compared to Black respondents. Interaction effects between gender and race are not statistically significant, indicating that the gender difference in support remains relatively consistent across racial groups. These findings highlight the importance of race in shaping death penalty attitudes and suggest that observed gender differences may be partly driven by underlying racial variation.
Eze-Schupfer-QAC-201-Project