ABSTRACT
A hearty perennial in debates about the death penalty concerns w hether the threat of execution deters homicide better than the next most severe criminal sanction. The salience of this debate waxes and wanes over time, but in recent years a dispute has em erged in the U nited States around claims by economists studying U.S. data that each execution prevents 3 to 18 or even 74 m urders (Liptak 2007; T anner 2007; Adler 8c Summers 2007). Reacting to these claims, two prom inent Harvard professors have con cluded that since executions do seem to deter, the death penalty is not only reasonable, it is “morally required” (Sunstein 8c Vermeule 2005). Many scholars have contested this assertion, and the studies on which it depends, for a wide variety of reasons (Donohue 8c Wolfers 2005; Steiker 2005; Fagan 2006; Fagan et al. 2006; Zimring 2008; Cohen-Cole et al. forthcoming; Hmarlsson in press).
