Please help. 10 points for the best advice. Thank you?

I want to write a thesis about Capital Punishment. I would like to prove that race and economic status do influence public support for capital punishment. What do you think of this topic? Please give me some feedback and suggestion.





I am a graduate student. Unfortunately, my university does not emphasize on research---they focus on exams and application.





I want to do a Ph. D; therefore, I need to know how to do an effective research.





Please help. Thank you very much for your kindness.








Sorry for the poor grammar--English is my second language.Please help. 10 points for the best advice. Thank you?
Here are a couple of good sources:





The Death Penalty Information Center. www.deathpenaltyinfo.org


Click on race.





Another: A recent documentary called ';Race to Execution'; is about differing views of the death penalty, based on race. The home page for this film has links to some very useful sources. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/racet鈥?/a>





Another: Take a look at the Baldus study, on how race affects whether a defendent faces the death penalty. Turns out that the race of the victim is the determining factor- a defendent charged with murdering a white person is much more likely to face the death penalty than if the victim was non white. I believe that you can find a link to this study at the Death Penalty Info Center website.





Economic issues: This is best seen by looking at the quality of defense attorneys. At the Death Penalty Information Center, click on representation.





***Another: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/tost_2.鈥?/a> this is from the Dept of Justice Bureau of Statistics and it may be just what you need.





Also take a look at public opinions, and polls at Death Penalty Info. At least one deals with race.








Good luck.Please help. 10 points for the best advice. Thank you?
Your English is pretty amazing for a second language :) I think that sounds like a great topic. I've never heard that argument so it would be interesting to see some research on it. If I were doing this, I would start by researching all the basic facts on capital punishment in general: the laws, the ethics, the history especially; then I would see if anybody has already done research on your specific argument-I bet there have been at least a few studies. Depending on the format of your paper, it would be great to start out with some kind of ';emotion-tugging'; attention-grabber; try to get someone's personal account to spice it up.


This sounds like a great thesis. I think a solid outline will be the key to making it even better. Good luck!