Fourth-year economics majors, Andy Deneris and Jordan Perrott, took home first place in the social sciences category for their research presented at the spring 2023 Intersections: SOURCE Poster Session at Case Western Reserve University.
At Intersections, undergraduate students display their research and creative projects across disciplines including: arts and humanities, engineering, life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.
Perrott, who also holds minors in chemistry and math, and Deneris, who has a second major in applied mathematics and minors in physics and German, said they were both very proud of their work and excited to share it at Intersections.
The pair decided on their research, Does the Threat of Death Save Lives: The Impact of the Death Penalty on Crime Rates in the United States, through brainstorming ideas around the justice system and how it can be improved.
“This brought us to the question of why we have a death penalty as opposed to a life sentence,” said Deneris. “After doing some preliminary research we decided to see if the death penalty is actually beneficial to society through the idea of deterrence.”
Their research focused on eight states who recently abolished the death penalty and analyzed if there was a resulting increase in violent crime rates.
Results were gathered for each treatment group by year and for each year following treatment to capture the dynamic effects. Deneris and Perrott found that while some groups and years produced significant results, the overall result was statistically insignificant. The conclusion of the research is that abolishing the death penalty does not increase violent crime rates.
Assistant Professor of Economics Jenny Hawkins was the team’s faculty mentor for their research and presentation.
“We found our results to be very compelling despite being unintuitive,” Deneris said. “Professor Hawkins did an excellent job in making sure we were doing good work while giving us the freedom to do things in our own way.”
Overall, Deneris said he greatly enjoyed participating at Intersections.
“I not only loved to present my own work, but also to hear about other people's ideas and research,” he said. “It was a valuable experience learning to present your ideas quickly and communicate them in a non-technical manner.”