YouGov survey examines public desire to bring back historic punishments
Key takeaways
- A minority support bringing back the stocks (21%) and flogging (17%)
- More Britons support reintroducing capital punishment (50%) than oppose (45%)
- Reform and Conservative voters are more in favour of bringing back these punishments than Labour, Lib Dems and Greens
- Most think the death penalty would be effective at reducing future crime
In the last few months, two high profile figures have called for the return of the stocks as a punishment in the UK: Times columnist Dominic Lawson and the influential ‘Blue Labour’ peer Lord Glasman.
Both men made the proposal in response to growing incidences of shoplifting. While the British public are likewise sceptical that shoplifters and other minor criminals will face justice for their crimes – or indeed that the police will even bother to investigate them – do they really want to see a return of punishments like the stocks?
The answer is no. The results of a new YouGov study show that just one in five Britons (21%) support bringing back the stocks as a punishment, while 72% are opposed.
There is net opposition to the idea across the political spectrum, although Reform voters are the most in favour, being closely divided with 43% in support against 48% opposed.
Given the nature of the topic, we also took the opportunity to ask about the reintroduction of other historic punishments: another instance of corporal punishment in the form of flogging, and the death penalty.
The results show the prospect of bringing back flogging to be slightly less popular again than the stocks, with only 17% in support and 76% opposed. The majority of voters across all parties are opposed, with Reform UK voters again the most likely to give it their backing, at 39%.
By contrast, the return of capital punishment is much more popular. In fact, half of Britons say they support it for some crimes (50%), compared to 45% who are opposed.
Eight in ten Reform voters (82%) support bringing back the death penalty, as do two thirds (67%) of Conservative voters. This falls to 35% among Labour voters and 30% for Lib Dems, with Greens the least likely to support capital punishment at 26%.
How effective do Britons think corporal and capital punishment would be at tackling crime?
YouGov tracker data already captures public opinion on how effective the public think conventional punishments are at reducing future crime. We have replicated these questions to include these additional historic punishments.
The results show that approximately three in ten Britons think that the stocks (29%) and flogging (31%) would be effective at tackling crime. In this, they are more likely to be seen as effective deterrents than short prison sentences (18%), and about as effective as fines (31%) and community sentences (also 31%).
Long prison sentences are the most likely to be seen as effective (66%), as is the death penalty (62%).
That the effectiveness figures are higher than the support figures demonstrate that there is a certain portion of the population (about 10-15%) who thinks that these punishments would work, but object to them on other, presumably moral, grounds. There is virtually no support for bringing back these punishments from those who think they would be ineffective.
For which crimes do Britons think corporal punishment is the most appropriate punishment?
So if some Britons want to bring back historic punishments, for what crimes do they want to see them applied?
When shown a list of crimes and asked to choose one option from a suite of punishments for each, it is anti-social behaviour for which the stocks are most frequently chosen as a punishment – but even then this is only the choice of 11% of Britons. Another 5% would have anti-social offenders flogged, but far more common are punishments of community sentences (37%) or short prison sentences.
The number of Britons willing to hand out flogging punishments does not really get higher than this, with the largest figure being 6% (for vandalism).
If we combine figures together, the 16% of Britons who want to either put those committing anti-social behaviour in the stocks or to see them flogged is the highest for any crime. Among Reform UK voters, the most enthusiastic about bringing back either crime, this figure reaches 34%, and 20% among Tories.
Among those who support bringing back either of these historic punishments, fully 47% think one or the other should be the typical punishment for anti-social behaviour, as do 41% for vandalism and 38% for shoplifting.
Four in ten Britons say capital punishment should be the typical sentence for murder
While the total proportion of Britons saying the stocks or flogging should be a typical punishment for some crimes is low, this is not the case when it comes to the death penalty. Our data shows that fully 42% of the public picked capital punishment as the typical sentence when it comes to murder, including 70% of Reform UK voters and 56% of Tories.
Among those who support bringing back capital punishment, 77% choose it from our list as the typical punishment for murder.
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Photo: Getty
