Public opinion and the eighth amendment: Is there a national consensus on the death penalty for child rape?

OBJECTIVE: (2008), the United States Supreme Court banned the death penalty for child rape, citing a "national consensus" against capital punishment in such cases. Five states have recently passed laws allowing the death penalty in these cases, leading to a potential constitutional challenge. This study investigates whether there is a national consensus that the death penalty is never an appropriate punishment for child rape. HYPOTHESES: , were provided. Also, we hypothesized that support would be higher in the five states that recently enacted such legislation. METHOD: a version describing severe physical injuries and a version describing less severe injuries. RESULTS: Across general policy measures, support for the death penalty for child rape ranged from 48% to 61%, depending on question phrasing. In the vignette task, support was significantly higher in the severe-injury condition (60.0%) than in the less severe condition (36.6%). General attitudes toward the death penalty strongly predicted judgments in the vignettes. Support was higher among residents of states that recently enacted child rape death penalty statutes, though substantial support was observed nationwide. CONCLUSION: Public support for the death penalty for child rape is substantial but contingent on framing and case facts and does not map cleanly onto state legislative patterns. These findings complicate claims that either statutes or public opinion provide stable indicators of a national consensus for Eighth Amendment purposes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).