Honor on Death Row

The Southern United States is described as having a culture ofhonor, an argument that has been used to explain higher crime rates in the SouthernUnited States than in the rest of the country. This research explored whether thecombination of honor-related violence and traditional southern politeness norms isrelated to regional differences in the degree of remorse expressed by those who havecommitted violent crimes. It was proposed that different social norms regardingpoliteness and apologies in the Southern United States would be reflected in thenarratives provided by offenders. The data came from the final statements that offenderson death row made before they were executed. Results showed that, compared withoffenders executed in the non-Southern United States, offenders executed in the Southmore often apologized for their crimes in their final statements, but they were notnecessarily more remorseful