Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

by Robert M. Sapolsky

One sticky way to respond to that is to question whether acts of retribution, reframed as compassion for the bereaved, should be a “right” of victims or their families. An easier response is to point out the well-documented but not widely known fact that closure for victims or their families is mostly a myth. Law professor Susan Bandes of DePaul University finds that for many, the execution and the accompanying media coverage are retraumatizing, impeding their recovery.[*] A surprising number reach the point of actively opposing the execution. Social workers Marilyn Armour of the University of Texas and Mark Umbreit of the University of Minnesota studied family members of homicide victims in their two states, the former leading the way in executing prisoners, the latter having banned it more than a century ago. They found that from the perspectives of health, psychological well-being, and daily function, the Minnesotans fared significantly better than the Texans.[*] Moreover, a recent, first-of-its-kind national survey of victims of violent crime reported, by a wide margin, a preference that criminal justice focus on rehabilitation rather than retribution, and that expenditures be increased for crime prevention rather than incarceration.[34]