Criminology: The Ethic Of Chivalry Towards Women

309 Words2 Pages
As argued above, criminology has examined the possibility that the criminal system extends the ethic of “chivalry” towards women, thus treating them more leniently than men. As Agnes McHugh (1916) proclaimed: “A man jury will not convict a woman murderer in this county, if the prosecutor is a man. I think this leniency may be traced to the chivalry latent in every man. The jurors see two or three big strong men sitting at the prosecutors’ table, and subconsciously feel that these fierce prosecutors are attacking the frail, pretty woman in the prisoner’s chair. Their instinct is to defend her. Perhaps their pity would not be stirred so profoundly if a woman was in the prosecutor’s chair. I believe the leniency of juries with feminine