Singapore’s Caning Sentence Divides Americans, Poll Finds

As American teen-ager Michael P. Fay pursues his final appeals to avoid a sentence of caning for vandalism in Singapore, Americans are divided evenly over whether he should suffer the punishment, The Times Poll found.

In the survey, 49% said they approve of the sentence, which President Clinton has protested, while 48% disapprove of Singapore carrying it out.

But poll respondents were much less willing to imagine using such punishment in America. Just 36% said they would approve of caning “for teen-age vandals here in the United States.” Three in five said they would disapprove.

On the question of whether Singapore should carry out the sentence, sharp racial and gender differences emerged. Men approved the decision to cane Fay 61% to 36%, while women disapproved 58% to 39%. Whites narrowly favored the sentence by 52% to 45%, while 55% of blacks and 58% of Latinos opposed it.

By contrast, a majority of men and women, whites, blacks and Latinos all opposed using the punishment here, although the level of opposition was greater among women and Latinos.