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Public Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty Survey

Measures where people stand on the death penalty — overall support, which crimes they think warrant it, and how they weigh deterrence, cost, fairness, and wrongful-conviction risk — with an AI follow-up that surfaces the reasoning and tensions behind their stance. Built for policy researchers, advocacy groups, and pollsters.

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Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

13 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Thanks for taking part in this survey on capital punishment. There are no right or wrong answers — we want your honest view, even if it's mixed or uncertain. It takes about 5 minutes.

Q02
Opinion ScaleRequired

Overall, how much do you support or oppose the use of the death penalty for serious crimes?

Scale: 0 – 10
Min:Strongly opposeMax:Strongly support
Q03
Multiple ChoiceRequired

For which of the following, if any, do you believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment? Select all that apply.

  • Premeditated murder
  • Murder of a police officer or public official
  • Terrorism resulting in death
  • Mass shootings
  • Treason
  • Drug trafficking
Q04
MatrixRequired

How much do you agree or disagree with each statement about the death penalty?

5 rows × 5 columns
  • The death penalty deters serious crime more effectively than long prison sentences.
  • There is a meaningful risk of executing an innocent person.
  • The death penalty costs more, per case, than life imprisonment without parole.
  • The death penalty is applied fairly regardless of a defendant's race or income.
  • Executing someone convicted of a capital crime is morally wrong under any circumstance.
Columns: Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree
Q05
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)

Which of these factors most and least shape your view on the death penalty?

  • Deterrent effect on future crime
  • Cost to taxpayers compared to life imprisonment
  • Risk of executing an innocent person
  • Closure for victims' families
  • Moral or religious beliefs
  • Racial and economic disparities in sentencing
  • International human rights standards
Pick best & worst per setBest:Most influential in shaping your viewWorst:Least influential in shaping your view
Q06
Multiple Choice

If the death penalty were abolished, which alternative punishment would you consider most appropriate for the most serious crimes?

  • Life imprisonment without possibility of parole
  • Life imprisonment with possibility of parole after a long fixed term (e.g., 25 years)
  • A long fixed-term sentence with periodic parole review
  • There is no adequate alternative to the death penalty for the most serious crimes
Q07
Opinion ScaleRequired

In practice, how confident are you that the death penalty is applied fairly, regardless of a defendant's race, income, or location?

Scale: 1 – 5
Min:Not at all confidentMax:Extremely confident
Q08
Multiple Choice

Has your view on the death penalty changed over time?

  • Yes, I've become more supportive
  • Yes, I've become more opposed
  • No, my view hasn't changed
  • I've never really thought about it before now
Q09
AI Interview

Explore the reasoning behind the respondent's overall stance on the death penalty, anchoring on their initial rating and which crimes they said it should apply to. If they support it but also agreed there's a meaningful risk of executing an innocent person, probe how they reconcile that tension. If their stance seems inconsistent with their answers elsewhere (e.g., opposing it in general but selecting eligible crimes, or vice versa), gently clarify the inconsistency. Ask what evidence, case, or argument, if any, could change their mind.

Q10
Multiple Choice

Which best describes your political views?

  • Very liberal/progressive
  • Liberal/progressive
  • Moderate
  • Conservative
  • Very conservative
  • Prefer not to say
Q11
Multiple Choice

How important is religion in your daily life?

  • Not at all important
  • Slightly important
  • Moderately important
  • Very important
  • Extremely important
  • Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice

Which age range do you fall into?

  • Under 25
  • 25-34
  • 35-44
  • 45-54
  • 55-64
  • 65+
  • Prefer not to say
Q13
Message

Thank you for sharing your views. Your responses will be combined with others' to help researchers understand where public opinion stands and why — no individual answers will be shared or attributed to you.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Goes beyond a static opinion scale by including an AI follow-up interview that probes the reasoning and tensions behind each respondent's overall stance on the death penalty
  • Captures nuanced tradeoffs with a matrix on deterrence/cost/fairness/wrongful-conviction agreement statements and a MaxDiff exercise ranking which factors most and least shape views
  • Includes multiple-choice items on crime-specific support, alternative punishments if abolished, and whether views have changed over time, plus standard political/religion/age classifiers for segmentation
  • Pairs an rating-scale on perceived fairness of real-world application with the AI follow-up, so researchers get both the stated confidence level and the underlying reasoning in one flow

Jotform

Death Penalty Survey Form Template

A ready-to-field static form template covering basic death penalty attitude questions, built on Jotform's drag-and-drop form builder. It's designed for quick deployment and easy customization rather than deep qualitative exploration. No adaptive follow-up or reasoning capture is part of the offering.

What it does well

  • Fielding-ready template with an established, easy-to-use form builder
  • Simple customization of question wording and branding
  • Broad familiarity among respondents with Jotform-style forms

Where it falls short

  • Static question set with no adaptive AI follow-up to probe reasoning or tensions in responses
  • No voice AI interview or guided screen-share task options
  • No automated per-response quality scoring or auto-generated analytical report

QuestionPro

Death Penalty Questionnaire + Sample Survey Questions Template

This is presented as a sample questionnaire and question bank for the topic, useful as a reference or starting point rather than a fully built adaptive experience. QuestionPro offers robust traditional survey logic and analytics tooling around it. The focus is on structured, closed-ended questions rather than open-ended reasoning capture.

What it does well

  • Sample questions and structure useful as a starting reference
  • Backed by QuestionPro's established survey logic and reporting tools
  • Suitable for large-scale quantitative fielding

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI-driven follow-up interview to surface underlying reasoning or tensions
  • No voice AI interview or guided task with screen share
  • No transparent, publishable prompt methodology behind question generation

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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