The Truth Behind The Bars of Men and Women within the Criminal Justice System

The research that examined the gender roles within the criminal sentencing has highly focused on gender bias and thereby, females who are sentenced are to minor punishments than males for the same offense. There are many studies that have not addressed the extent, whose sentencing guidelines have been affected by the gender bias. For example, does gender bias exist with the existence of sentencing guidelines? Gender stereotypes within men and women have made an influence on the sentencing outcomes according to the sex of offenders. Women are more likely stereotyped as inconstant and childlike, therefore shown with no full responsibility for their criminal behavior.

Although, the stereotypes of gender benefit women, especially in the area of criminal justice. Scholars even have found that women receive shorter sentences for sex crimes than men. In a 2014 study, it suggests that the federal courts are more lenient on the female defendants in general. They are also less likely to incarcerate the women and they tend to give them a shorter sentence than men. In a 2015 study, Goulette et al. took a clearer look into the disparities of gender within the criminal justice system. Goulette et al. explored the outcome within the two stages of the criminal justice process. What they had done was examine throughout their ideas and final decisions that the judges had made at the defendant’s first appearance hearing and during the sentencing. There are previous studies that had investigated the gender disparities in the judicial decisions that were connected to only one of the two events that had potentially neglected the interaction between the outcomes in each phase. All together the researchers had analyzed about 3,593 felony cases, which had been referred to the County Office of the Prosecutor in the jurisdiction within the United States in 2009. Within their findings, they had included many reasonable facts and they were: women are less likely to be detained before trial and 46 percent less likely than men to be held within a jail cell prior to trial. Women who were released on bond were given a lower bond amount, they were set towards certain amounts 54 percent lower than what the men were required to pay. The women were about 58 percent less likely to be sentenced to a prison for a first and final decision.

For the defendants who got a sentence to prison, there was pretty much no gender disparity in the length of their sentence but there were disparities within the sentences for some individual type crimes. For example, the defendants of a female convicted of theft would receive a longer sentence than male defendants convicted of that same crime. Women who were convicted of “other property offenses” like arson, receiving stolen property and breaking and entering would receive a shorter sentence to prison. Black women defendants were even treated differently in some ways than the white female defendants. They were being treated differently by having assigned the black women a high bond amount and more likely to be sent to prison than a white woman. Both women of those races were all in all equal and most likely to be released prior to their trial.

A hypothesization the authors had made was that judges may treat female defendants more leniently when it comes to the traditional gender role of a housewife and mother. Goulette and her colleagues of the research had found the support for the “evil women” assumption that suggested the “chivalry” to be reserved for only certain groups of women who were shown to be obedient and in need of protection. They had said that the future research should explore through the idea that some judges might treat the female defendants more harshly if they believe that it is in the defendants best interest and if the stronger sentence is served to protect the women towards the future. Policy makers had also considered many ways to reduce the disparities within by compelling the judges’ caution. Judges’ decisions need to be more and carefully monitored of the decisions that are made towards the defendant’s first appearance hearing.

The researchers findings had suggested that the decisions related to the amounts of the bond had an impact on the pretrial detention, making it one of the strongest predictors within the prison sentences.

Both men and women who are characterized by the way they are represented, face unequal charges and opportunities with no voice able to be heard.