ABSTRACT
In Dunn and Kaplan's study, the presentation of life history evidence tended to reinforce individualism because the presentation of such evidence placed the onus of the problems discussed entirely within the defendant. The decision makers in capital cases are overly reliant on psychological individualism exposes a stark reality that calls into question the ability of guided discretion statutes to limit the death penalty's arbitrariness and the ability of social policy in the United States more generally to address the true causes of social problems such as crime, poverty, and entrenched inequality. The hegemony of individualism does absolve society of responsibility for the great harms it has inflicted on its members and its role in creating conditions conducive to lethal violence while simultaneously disempowering the rest of society from devising meaningful social solutions to social problems such as crime and poverty.
