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.
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.
