14 DAY TRIAL // According to the results of a new research by experts at the University of Minnesota and the University of Texas in Austin, it would appear that the families of victims gain no satisfaction and no closure from the execution of perpetrators that did their friends or loved ones wrong.
This study basically demolishes one of the most important premises supporters of the death penalty relay upon, namely that executions somehow improve the lives of those the criminals have wronged. This is the first time that the impact of death penalties on victims' families has been directly analyzed.
The research is not meant to suggest that punishments such as life without parole (LWOP) is a better alternative. Rather, it deals exclusively with the emotional impacts that executions produce on those who were meant to gain satisfaction from these events, PsychCentral reports.
The work was led by expert Mark Umbreit, PhD, from Minnesota – a state that does not have the death penalty – and UTA colleague Peterson Armour, PhD, whose state is in favor of the death penalty. The team found that people from Minnesota were, on average, more physically, psychologically and behaviorally healthy than their peers in Texas, who got to see criminals executed.
“We’re still kind of teasing out all the implications of this study, but it certainly raises significant policy issues. It challenges this notion, this assumption that, ‘well, at least the death penalty really brings closure to survivors,” Umbreit concludes.