How Families of Murder Victims Feel Following the Execution of Their Loved One’s Murderer: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Reports of Executions from 2006-2011

Authors

Corey Burton, University of South Carolina
Richard Tewksbury, University of Louisville

Abstract

"Two common assumptions are that family members of murder victims (i.e. co-victims) will achieve closure and perceive a sense of justice following the execution of their loved one’s murderer. Those acting on behalf of co-victims and purporting to represent their best interests often use closure and justice discourses to bolster their arguments in favor of capital punishment in a particular case. However to assume, unequivocally, that family members will view the execution as the last of several steps in the journey to closure and perceived justice is to ignore a significant number of co-victims who may feel differently. Drawing on family member statements from newspaper articles reporting on 138 executions in the United States from 2006-2011, the current study examined family member post-execution feelings and attitudes as reported in the media. The results indicate that family member closure and perceived justice following the execution, although among the most prominent and specific themes that emerge, are still relatively uncommon. For instance, only 35% of family members stated that the execution represented justice while only 31% of family members stated that the execution gave them closure, healing or a step toward either. Results are discussed in the context of previous literature on family member post-execution feelings and attitudes. Societal and policy implications are also discussed."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Burton, Corey and Tewksbury, Richard (2013) "How Families of Murder Victims Feel Following the Execution of Their Loved One’s Murderer: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Reports of Executions from 2006-2011," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol1/iss1/3