Gender and Justice By The Numbers
Allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have sparked conversations and debates across the country that transcend whether or not he should sit on the court: about our willingness to listen to stories of sexual assault, about how long ago is too long to matter, and about our responsibility for the crimes and mistakes of our youth. We hope the statistics below provide some insights for these discussions.
The average number of juvenile offenders tried as adults every year in the U.S.
The estimated number of juvenile offenders serving life without parole in the U.S. as of 2009
The maximum sentence, in years, a 17 year old could receive in Maryland today for attempted rape of a 15-year-old.
The percentage of sex crimes against juveniles committed by juveniles.
The age at which sex offenders are required to register nationwide according to SORNA (the Sex Offender Register and Notification Act).
The percentage increase in campus sexual assaults per 10,000 students reported between 2001 and 2014.
The percentage increase in misdemeanor sex offenses reported to theNYPD between 2017 and 2018.
The percentage increase in rapes reported to the NYPD between 2017 and 2018.
The number of states that require statewide affirmative consent education in high schools (California).
GENDER AND INTERRUPTIONS: AN UNEXPECTED TIE
One aspect of gender relations is the accusation that men don’t hear women when they speak, or that they interrupt them. On Thursday, Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegations, and some people will be listening for that. But meanwhile we wondered: do male senators tend to interrrupt their female colleagues?
Not so much, apparently, at least in the Judiciary Committee. A Brooklyn Ink analysis of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings from 1999 through the present suggests a legislative body that is an equal opportunity interrupter.
True, the male/female breakdown of committee members over the time period is 62 to 8. But we found that male and female senators both interrupted and were interrupted at roughly equal rates per 1,000 words spoken, running counter to findings in similar studies of Supreme Court oral arguments.
Male senators did, however, speak more than their female colleagues — by about 5,000 words per legislative session, on average.
— Reporting by Champe Barton, Sara Ohlms, and Shrai Popat
