Public Opinion
In the Fall of 2001, shortly before the Serbian abolition, a study of attitudes to the death penalty, based on a poll of 926 citizens, found the respondents to be equally divided: 43% were for the death penalty and 43% were against it, with 14% undecided. Subsequent polls, taken every year since 2007 on a representative sample of around 1,000 citizens, confirm this result. Those for and those against capital punishment remain equally divided with minor year-to-year variations, like a seesaw: one year a majority of a few per cent would be for, and the next against the death penalty (see Table below).
| Year | Against death penalty (%) | For death penalty (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 50 | 50 |
| 2007 | 56 | 44 |
| 2008 | 48 | 52 |
| 2009 | 52 | 48 |
| 2010 | 47 | 53 |
| 2011 | 53 | 47 |
| 2012 | 49 | 51 |
Opinion polls, Serbia, 2002, 2007–2012 (“undecided” excluded)
When the results in the above table are merged, it appears that a majority of one per cent is against the death penalty.
Read more about this topic: Capital Punishment In Serbia
Famous quotes related to public opinion:
“A state that denies its citizens their basic rights becomes a danger to its neighbors as well: internal arbitrary rule will be reflected in arbitrary external relations. The suppression of public opinion, the abolition of public competition for power and its public exercise opens the way for the state power to arm itself in any way it sees fit.... A state that does not hesitate to lie to its own people will not hesitate to lie to other states.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)