Sandusky: Bail or jail?
Already facing 40 counts of child sexual abuse charges against 8 boys, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested late last week on more counts of sexual assault against two more boys. Sandusky was released on bail and is awaiting a court appearance. In a Poll Position national scientific telephone survey, we wanted to know if you thought Sandusky should have been freed on bail, or remained in prison. A majority of Americans, 57% think Sandusky should have stayed in jail, 25% thought he should have been freed on bail, 18% did not have an opinion.
African-Americans felt strongly about Sandusky staying in prison with 65% making that choice, 14% said Sandusky should have been allowed to go home on bail, 21% did not have an opinion.
Those 65 and over felt even stronger with 68% saying Sandusky should have stayed in prison, 18% said he should have been allowed bail, 15% offered no opinion.
Men and women differed on the question with 61% of women picking jail for Sandusky, 21% thought bail was OK, 18% did not have an opinion. Among men, 54% thought Sandusky should have remained in prison, but 28% thought he should have been freed on bail, 18% did not have an opinion.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,024 registered voters nationwide was conducted December 8, 2011 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.
What do you think? Vote in our online companion poll and comment below.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position Crosstabs-Sandusky
You can learn more about our polling methodology here.
