Gender and Sentencing

Question 1

Describe patterns of gender sentencing

Answer 1

Shoplifting (stereotypically a female offence): Women more likely to be discharged or given a probation order and less likely to be fined or given custody 
Violent offences (stereotypically a male offence): Men and women equal chance of prison for first violence offence Repeat offenders: women less likely to be given custody than men 
Drug offences (gender neutral): Female first offenders less likely than male first offenders to be given custody Repeat offenders: men and women have an equal chance of custody

Question 2

Describe the chivalry thesis in gender and sentencing

Answer 2

Farrington & Morris, 1983: Wilczynski, 1997

Women treated more leniently by CJS due to paternalistic attitudes of judicial decision-makers

Question 3

Describe family-based justice

Answer 3

Courts concerned to shield families and children from unpleasant and destructive consequences of incarceration of major carers

Custody as a last resort for women
For men it is linked to seriousness of offence

Mitigating factors 
Family responsibility (for men only if sole carer)
Marital status (stability and social control for men)
Income/employment status (women not perceived to have own income so avoid fining them; unemployed men perceived as layabouts)

Question 4

Describe women who murder

Answer 4

Women less likely to be prosecuted, prosecuted for murder, or convicted of murder
Women are more likely to have psychiatric evidence, enter psychiatric pleas, and receive psychiatric disposals
Men are more likely to receive a custodial sentence
Filicidal women typically viewed as ‘sad’ or ‘mad’ whereas filicidal men usually viewed as ‘bad’

Question 5

Describe the increasing number of women being sent to prison

Answer 5

Increasing growth in female prison population most likely reflects changes in use of custodial sentences for female offenders rather than in patterns of women’s offending
No evidence that women are committing more crimes
No evidence that women’s crimes are being more serious (they remain relatively minor crimes)

Question 6

Describe race in sentencing

Answer 6

BME people more likely to be incarcerated than white people but no difference in length of sentence
Black men at the top of punishment hierarchy: perceived as more blameworthy and less reformable
(Daly 1996)