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Gender disparity in criminal justice system
Gender disparity in criminal justice system
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In 1836, the gruesome death of a prostitute encaptivated the public eye and began a newspaper frenzy that centered on a morbid fixation of the life and death of Helen Jewett. Patricia Cline Cohen's The Murder of Helen Jewett pieces together the facts of Helen's life and death in an attempt to describe gender inequality in America by giving a meticulous account of life in the 1830s. (Insert small biography) Around three in the morning on Sunday, April 10, 1836 Rosina Townsend, the madam of the brothel, was spurred from her bed at the south end of Thomas St by a man knocking on the front door.
In Virginia, people mostly focused on growing of staples and exotic crops for cash. The crops that they grew in their colony were rice, indigo, and tobacco. But in Virginia, tobacco was the crop that they focused on, in fact, tobacco was the first most famous staple crop grown and became their economic foundation. As far as working in the fields, Virginia started off with indentured servants to perform the labor, but as they became expensive they shifted to purchasing slaves. Mortality rates were higher because of diseases that many of them came in contact with, men were expected to live to forty and women weren’t expected to live past their thirties.
This racial discrimination has led to a discriminatory manner that punishes blacks who victimized whites more severely compared to whites who victimize blacks. Even though race has been abolished as a legally relevant factor in capital sentencings, there are still variations in capital sentencing patterns along racial lines. The author tries to answer the question of how a system that tries to design itself as a racially neutral system can still have racial variations in capital sentencing. The author argues that there is a link between race and empathy in mitigation. The author conducted a study that focused on juror race and receptivity to mitigation and defendant race.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are here because one person in this courtroom decided to take law into her own hands. The defendant, Mrs. Dominique Stephens, murdered the man that she vowed to love. This sole act by the defendant is violation of all morals and her husband’s right to live. Afterwards, she even felt guilty about this violation of justice and called the cops on herself, and she later signed a written statement stating that she is guilty of the murder of Mr. Donovan Stephens. Then the defendant later recanted this statement and said that she only killed Mr. Stephens in self defense.
Did you know that approximately 72% of wrongful conviction involved eyewitness misidentification? In the play, “Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose, The 7th Juror is very savage because he is ignorant, sassy, and he does not care. He will say anything that comes to mind without even thinking about it. From making fun of someone’s race, to calling someone an elderly, he will speak his thoughts.
Most sexual offenders are male, and nearly all known serial killers are also male. Aileen Wuornos is one of history’s highest-profile female serial murderers. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death for the murder of six men. During her childhood, Wuornos was exposed to abandonment by her biological parents, seclusion and physical and emotional abuse from her grandparents. The conspicuous lack of attention and communication from her caregivers along with the violent and toxic environment she endured forged a pattern for Aileen’s early-on criminal nature and violent behavior.
I. Gender Disparity Guidelines and Data In the context of gender disparity in criminal sentencing, some may think that having said that criminal courts are more lenient on women is just one’s opinion. In fact, a lot of researches and data suggest that there is a strong different in gender in the sentencing outcomes. Men are sentenced to longer prison terms than women. Men are 42% more likely to be sentenced to prison.
At first glance, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell may seem like an ordinary murder mystery story. However, the theme of the short story goes well beyond mere entertainment. The story focuses on two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, as they wait for their husbands during a police investigation of the murder of Mrs. Wright’s husband. As the men recount the details of that day and search the house for evidence, the two women stumble upon the solution to the murder using simple everyday clues they find lying around the kitchen and living room. In this story, Glaspell develops an underlying theme surrounding gender roles, specifically the subjugation of women and male obliviousness to women.
Do you empathize with the defendant? Do you feel bad for her and the events that have taken place in her life? Nine times out of ten a jury member will answer yes to one if not all of these questions allowing him/her to be influenced by the woman’s
Feminist criminology has been around since the late 1960's and started out centered on speculations brought upon traditional theories of crime. Most traditional theories didn't necessarily ignore women in the criminal justice system yet they generalized crime and what causes a person to turn to crime so that women who commit crimes are overlooked by the generalization. Not only are the numbers skewed when you look at gender in criminal justice offenders but there is also a certain bias in the criminal justice systems workers. In the movie Vera Drake there is a clear example of this when the investigator and the officer come into the movie. While watching you can easily assume that the female officer is treated and thought of much differently
Intersectionality is described in the article “Transformative Feminist Criminology: A Critical Re-thinking of a Discipline by Meda Chesney-Lind and Merry Morash as,” theoretical attention to intersectionality (i.e., combinations of gender with race, class, ethnicity, and other status markers that affect social life and individuals)” (290). The example given in the article deals more heavily with women and feminism. An example given in the text about intersectionality is,” socialist feminism made an important contribution to understanding that not just gender, but also class, results in oppression... countries where receive little education and hold low occupational status experience high levels of sexual violence. (290).
(Lee Pg.296). This means that women are known as “delicate” and that they need to be protected from doing stressful jobs such as being on a jury. Maybe they just don 't want women
While a lenient attitude may benefit individual female defendants, they are ultimately not only discriminatory towards the victims of female offenders but negative for women themselves (Weare, 2013). When featured in mediated crimes, women are usually over-represented as victims (Weare, 2013). From the ‘labelling’ perspective, the symbiotic relationship between labelling women who kill as either mad, bad, or a victim is highlighted while their agency is continuously in denial and absent (Weare, 2013). As a consequence, victims lack the closure needed to heal and perpetrators themselves never learn. Therefore, the criminal justice system’s response towards women is therefore enforcing stereotypical female sex roles that perpetuate patriarchy.
Women convicted of “other property offenses” – a category of crimes that includes arson, receiving stolen property and breaking and entering — received shorter prison sentences. • Black female defendants were, in some ways, treated differently than white female defendants. Black women were assigned higher bond amounts and were more likely to be sent to prison than white women. Women of both races were equally likely to be released prior to
Consequently, there is evidence from studies that draw conclusions that there is gender bias in sentencing for both women and men. On the surface there appears to be a degree of preferential treatment or leniency in the criminal justice system. However, there are other factors that enshroud the whole aspect of biases that include class, race and the offence in question among others. There is need for the justice system to understand female offenders in order to be able to address it effectively and avoid the perpetual claims of bias which only signifies the