Sociology Now, Census Update

WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 203

4.If some people in your community suggested that a book written against

churches and religion should be taken out of your public library, would you favor

removing this book?In 2004, the responses were 25.3 percent to remove the book

and 74.7 percent to not remove it. Attitudes have changed somewhat since 1982,

when 40.2 percent said to remove the book.

5.If some people in your community suggested that a book written in favor of

homosexuality should be taken out of your public library, would you favor

removing this book?In 2004, 26.4 percent of respondents said remove the book

and 73.6 percent said don’t. The percentage of people advocating removing the book

has been in a steady decline since 45 percent said remove in 1973.

6.If some people in your community suggested that a book that said Blacks are

inferior should be taken out of your public library, would you favor removing

this book, or not?In 2004, 32.9 percent of respondents said they would be in favor

of removing the book, while 67.1 percent said they would not. Although those num-

bers have remained pretty steady since the 1970s, the percentage of people wanting

to remove the book peaked in 1982 at 40.4 percent.

CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. It appears that American’s attitudes toward censoring unpopular ideas have changed signifi-
   cantly in the past 30 years. How does this change reflect changes in American society and in
   American values?


2. Why do more Americans seem to be tolerant of books in the library having perceived deviant
   views than they are of college teachers having perceived deviant views?


3. What does it say about American values that more Americans would censor an antireligion
   point of view than a prohomosexual view?

6.2 Death Penalty for Murder

This is actual survey data from the General Social Survey, 2004.

Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?In

2004, almost 70 percent of respondents were in favor of the death penalty. When we

look at the responses by race, though, we see a very large and significant difference.

Seventy-two percent of White respondents favor the death penalty for murder, while

only 40 percent of Black respondents do so.

CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. How can we explain the difference in White and Black responses to the survey question?

3 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and crosstabs
here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04

REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys
1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research
Center [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted
Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.