This book describes several programs of research into psychological disorder and deviance conducted by author Alfred B. Heilbrun, Jr. during his distinguished career as a university professor. Each program is guided by the assumption that disorder and deviance follow from faulty learning experiences that result in dysfunctional acquisition of behavior, and from ineffective efforts at resolution or compensations. Learning principles are applied to a range of abnormalities from mild character or personality problems to stress-related somatic disorders to the most serious of psychotic disabilities. The systematic studies in each program provide many new empirically based perspectives on disorder.

As a punishment for our most serious crime-the intentional killing of a victim in an egregious way-the death penalty naturally attracts opposing moral views. One view says that the state should never execute a criminal no matter what the crime may be. The other view requires execution as justice is sought for the victim. This book considers a third possible view: capital punishment should be judged by its pragmatic value to society. Does the prospect of possible execution save lives by deterring the act of murder? Heilbrun presents evidence concerning whether state death penalties demonstrate the two necessary properties of a true deterrent: a reduction in intentional killing when present and an increase when removed. The Case for Capital Punishment contains an analysis of rarely-considered factors that influence the deterrence of murder and a discussion of the common criticisms of capital punishment.

Capital punishment attracts strong and opposing moral positions: execution by the state under any condition is wrong versus execution as just retribution for heinous killing. In this book, the author rejects these moral arguments as a basis for determining the social value of the death penalty and considers the issue scientifically by determining whether capital punishment deters willful killing. Using evidence from legal history, the impairment / abolishment of the death penalty between 1968 and 1976 and the right of states to adopt or abolish the death penalty, this book examines the statistical relationship between the death penalty and deterrence. The investigation considers the murder rate during periods with and without the threat of capital punishment, the role of state commitment to its own capital punishment system, and fairness in administering the death penalty.

This book describes several programs of research into psychological disorder and deviance conducted by author Alfred B. Heilbrun, Jr. during his distinguished career as a university professor. Each program is guided by the assumption that disorder and deviance follow from faulty learning experiences that result in dysfunctional acquisition of behavior, and from ineffective efforts at resolution or compensations. Learning principles are applied to a range of abnormalities from mild character or personality problems to stress-related somatic disorders to the most serious of psychotic disabilities. The systematic studies in each program provide many new empirically based perspectives on disorder.