LV Life

Thomson focuses on death penalty

Ernie Thomson, new associate professor of sociology, has had six articles published on the death penalty since 1994. Thomson plans to teach a course on the death penalty in spring 2002. The class will introduce students to the history and development of capital punishment, with special focus on individual states within the United States. / photo by Juan Garcia
Ernie Thomson, new associate professor of sociology, has had six articles published on the death penalty since 1994. Thomson plans to teach a course on the death penalty in spring 2002. The class will introduce students to the history and development of capital punishment, with special focus on individual states within the United States. / photo by Juan Garcia

by Jennifer Contreras
Editorial Director

His warm smile and easygoing demeanor seem almost to contradict the grim, though important, research to which he’s devoted so many years.

The University of La Verne’s newest behavioral science professor, Ernie Thomson, is an expert in the death penalty and prison-life topics which he intends to bring to the classroom spring semester.

“In sociology, we teach a course called social problems, which deals with a whole range of social and political issues and part of that course is criminology,” said Thomson, a native Texan, with a southern drawl.

“The death penalty is a striking example in criminology that really piques people’s interest.”

The topic, which Thomson began teaching at Arizona State University over nine years ago, piqued Thomson’s interest. Over the last seven years, he has had six articles published in various publications such as Homicide Studies and Criminal Justice Review. He also plans to work on a book, which will eventually serve as a textbook for his course.

“I started teaching a little section in one of my classes on the death penalty, and it started to grow. I started to learn more about it, so over time I drifted into it further and further, and I started doing research on the key questions on the death penalty,” he said.

Some of the key questions Thomson speaks of are, “Is it [the death penalty] a deterrent?” and “Is there discrimination in death sentencing?”

He found that the death penalty fails to serve as a deterrent. It’s a bad policy, he said.

“My last research project indicated that executions actually increase homicides among juveniles. My data for the last paper was from California and showed an 80 percent increase in juvenile homicides following an execution. The younger the juvenile, the larger the increase. So the evidence that proves that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent is overwhelming,” said Thomson.

It is through all of the research he conducted that Thomson’s interest evolved into a full-scale course on the death penalty.

Thomson’s course deals with the history of the death penalty and how it is applied, along with information from his own research

Before coming to ULV, Thomson taught the course at the University of Houston, Clearlake for three years.

Thomson’s research has enabled him to develop theories about why juvenile homicide rates go up after an execution.

“I suspect how it works is with young male juveniles, we have young guys playing video games where they are shooting at stuff, and then somebody is executed and they are thinking, ‘Wow! Cool! Somebody’s been killed!’, so it desensitizes them more to violence. So if the government kills, it says in a way that it’s OK to kill to solve problems,” he said.

Thomson uses something called the “cultural violence theory”, to explain, why the southern part of the United States has a higher homicide rate than other parts of the country.

“Males from the South are more likely to engage in violence than in other parts of the U.S. to me, it also accounts for why the South has the death penalty. It all comes from the same place, people are more willing to kill other people to solve problems there. Higher homicide rates and the death penalty both come from a cultural tolerance for violence and killing as way to solve problems.

Thomson spent the first 24 years of his life in Texas, which he noticed that along with the rest of the South, conducts more executions than other regions.

“Many people in academia think that Bush’s war rhetoric is an expression of this culture of violence and thus are urging a more cautious approach. I agree,” Thomson said.

Thomson admits that there isn’t a lot of concrete evidence to prove his theories, but he says that the evidence that has been developed through research all points in that direction.

Interest in the death penalty and the number of courses specifically on the death penalty are increasing, Thomson said.

“The death penalty is so controversial because of the set of issues that go along with it. It is almost a model for the issue of criminology. The argument between ‘get tough on crime’ versus and liberal approaches to crime leads to many disputes on the issue. There are also disputes about the effectiveness of the death penalty, like the question, ‘does it work’? I think because it encapsulates so many issues in a more much visible and more crucial sort of area because it involves killing, is why it’s o intriguing It’s more exciting than burglary,” he said.

Thomson’s research also links the death penalty to lynching.

“Lynching was the death penalty without trial,” he says, “Execution methods have changed over time. Execution methods, from a variety of different torture methods to hanging, which was at one point almost universal in industrial societies, then they underwent a transition to new forms like the electric chair and the gas chamber, and now the newer technology of lethal injection. Those parallel other institutional changes in the death penalty.”

Thompson said that he believes the biggest problem with the death penalty is that the poor are more subject to it than those who can afford lawyers.

“If you can get a good lawyer, you’re not going to get sentenced to death,” said Thompson.

He says he is not an advocate in favor or against the death penalty.

“What I do is not about being pro or anti, but rather it’s about studying how it works. In the end I’m opposed to it, but not because of philosophical or moral reasons so much as practical reasons, it’s not a very good policy because it just doesn’t work in practice.

“My aim is to make people comfortable and have them learn how it works so that they can know what they are talking about,” said Thomson.

Before he began his research on the death penalty, Thomson floated in and out of colleges.

“When I was that age, guys wanted to get out of school and get a job. Eventually I was drafted and went to the Army, and when I got out of the Army I had GI bills which is what got me into school,” said Thomson.

Upon leaving the army, he continued his education at the University of Texas, El Paso, eventually earning his master of sociology degree there. He later went on to earn his doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Following a teaching stint in Arkansas and after his long stay in Arizona, he returned to Texas and taught at UHC, where he would spend the next three years before making the move to ULV.

Having lived in Santa Barbara before, Thomson wanted to come back to Southern California, and after checking out ULV, he thought it seemed like a “really good situation.”

“When this job came up, I jumped at it,” he said.

He responded to an ad in an American Sociological Association publication.

Professor of Sociology Sharon Davis says that Thomson fits well with the ULV mission statement.

“He was knowledgeable, personable and humanistic,” said Davis.

She went on to say, “The Department of Sociology and Anthropology has been strengthened by Ernie Thomson’s presence. His presence will allow our criminology majors to take courses in law and society and the death penalty to name a few.

“Already students are responding positively to Thomson who, in turn, has indicated how pleased he is with them,” she said.

Thomson says he has found a nice balance at ULV, where he believes he can grow as an instructor and a researcher.

His first few weeks have been very positive, he said, adding he has yet to see a bad side.

“I like this area, the weather is nice and it’s close to Santa Barbara. And the people are so friendly here, and from what I’ve heard, they are very progressively oriented and they’re interested in diversity,” he said.

He says he is happy to be back in Southern California, nestled in the foothills, surrounded by the welcoming arms of the ULV community.

This semester, Thomson is teaching Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice Systems. Thomson has a website that his students can refer to the website www.erniethomson.com for info on Thomson’s courses.

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