The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia
Today, two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world's most rapidly developing region?

David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.
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The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia
Today, two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world's most rapidly developing region?

David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.
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The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

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Overview

Today, two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty, either officially or in practice, due mainly to the campaign to end state executions led by Western European nations. Will this success spread to Asia, where over 95 percent of executions now occur? Do Asian values and traditions support capital punishment, or will development and democratization end executions in the world's most rapidly developing region?

David T. Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin E. Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, combine detailed case studies of the death penalty in Asian nations with cross-national comparisons to identify the critical factors for the future of Asian death penalty policy. The clear trend is away from reliance on state execution and many nations with death penalties in their criminal codes rarely use it. Only the hard-line authoritarian regimes of China, Vietnam, Singapore, and North Korea execute with any frequency, and when authoritarian states experience democratic reforms, the rate of executions drops sharply, as in Taiwan and South Korea. Debunking the myth of "Asian values," Johnson and Zimring demonstrate that politics, rather than culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of executions. Carefully researched and full of valuable lessons, The Next Frontier is the authoritative resource on the death penalty in Asia for scholars, policymakers, and advocates around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195382457
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 02/02/2009
Series: Studies in Crime and Public Policy
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 544
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David T. Johnson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii and author of The Japanese Way of Justice: Prosecuting Crime in Japan, which received book awards from the American Society of Criminology and the American Sociological Association.

Franklin E. Zimring is the William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment (voted a Book of the Year by The Economist).

Table of Contents

Part I: Issues and Methods1. Asia and the Future of Capital Punishment2. Varieties of Capital Punishment in Contemporary AsiaPart II: National Profiles3. Development without Abolition: Japan in the 21st Century4. A Lesson Learned: Capital Punishment in the Philippines5. The Vanguard: The Death Penalty and Political Change in South Korea6. The Other China: Capital Punishment in Taiwan7. The Political Origins of Chinese Death Penalty ExceptionalismPart III: Lessons and Prospects8. Lessons from Asia9. The Pace of Change in AsiaAppendix A: Capital Punishment in the Hermit Kingdom of North KoreaAppendix B: One Country, Two Systems: Death Penalty Policy in Hong Kong and MacaoAppendix C: China Lite? The Death Penalty in VietnamAppendix D: Death Sentences and Executions in ThailandAppendix E: The Death Penalty in SingaporeAppendix F: The Death Penalty in IndiaAppendix G: State-Killing in Asia: On the Relationship between Judicial and Extra-Judicial ExecutionsNotes
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