Talion Death Deterrence People Tal Ee Uhn Noun Punishment Identical

"Retribution (`a life for a life') has been a more popular reason than belief in deterrence since 1981. It is possible that people were more reluctant to express retributive motives a decade earlier, but we have no comparable data. Support for the law of talion has increased over the past 10 years, but far more striking is the marked decrease in the proportion of people who spontaneously give general deterrence as their reason." - Ellsworth, Phoebe C., Gross, Samuel R., Hardening of the attitudes: Americans' views on the death penalty, Journal of Social Issues, 22 Jun 94.