Trauma and Coping among Execution Team Members

Abstract

A trauma framework is applied to the experiences of execution team members. A directed content analysis of three seminal publications on executioners at work is used to investigate how execution team members respond to observing and participating in executions, a potentially traumatic stressor. Through these texts, supplemented by other research where appropriate, we undertake a review of first-hand scholarship on the topic of executioners at work. The execution process, which is meant to facilitate executions and insulate execution team officers from stress, only partially achieves these goals. Our findings suggest that many of the concepts central to understanding executioners at work—how they understand and cope with their roles—are dynamic rather than static, varying in degree across persons and situations rather than being present or absent across all persons and situations. Execution team officers report varying degrees of difficulty fully rationalizing and diffusing responsibility for their actions, ultimately leading to internal conflict and stress about the death penalty and participation in executions.