Gender bias in courtroom dynamics

Respondents to numerous surveys about courtroom interaction have identified gender bias as a serious problem in the courts. Consistently, women perceive more bias than do men. To explore the importance of gender, role (judge vs. attorney), experience with bias, and age in predicting perceptions of gender bias in the courtroom, we conducted secondary analyses of data from a survey of judges and attorneys in Illinois. Three dimensions of bias were identified:Presence of Bias, Optimism (belief that bias is decreasing), andInstrumental Bias (use of biased behavior as a trial tactic). Although role, age, and experience had some importance in explaining the scores on these three factors, gender offered the greatest predictive power. Implications for future research and for ending bias in courtroom interaction are discussed.This research was completed with support from the Office of Social Science Research, University of Illinois at Chicago.     

Gender Pay Gap in Poland

In this paper we examine the gender pay gap in Poland over 1987–1996, i.e., shortly before and during the transition to market economy. The principle source of data used throughout the paper is the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Polish Central Statistical Office. The study documents three major results. First, the transition to market economy in Poland favored women substantially in terms of relative earnings differentials. The gender pay gap decreased by 10.2 log% points and the position of mean female in male wage distribution went up by 9.9 percentiles over 1987–1996. By 1995, the values of these measures reached the level observed in industrial economies such as the U.K., Austria, Italy or Australia. Second, rising relative skills of women and rising returns to skills explain about half of the fall in the gender pay gap over 1987–1996. Third, the pay gap did not follow a smooth adjustment process. 1989, the year of the first democratic parliamentary elections, which resulted in forming the first non-communist government, saw the most spectacular change, although actual market reforms began one year after. The changes in the early phase of the transition were mostly driven by sudden shifts in relative wages and employment across industries. Afterwards, the pay gap measures stabilized, partly because rising overall wage inequalities offset the advantages of females due to observed skills.     

体育运动中性别歧视的法律规制简

体育性别歧视是体育运动中对某种性别参与者的不平等对待.奥林匹克运动有性别歧视的传统.体育性别歧视的样态表现在：体育参与机会不均等、同工不同酬和体育性骚扰.它侵权的类别有：体育参与权、体育劳动权和体育人格权.反体育性别歧视的法律制度体现在国际公约方面和国内立法方面.体育性别歧视法律应对机制存在不足,应该对其进行完善.     

Gender Role and Gender as Predictors of Behavior Problems in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. Bem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643, 1975) argued that gender role is an important predictor of mental health, and this relationship may differ for males and females due to societal gender norms. Given the gendered nature of IPV, we examined whether gender role interacted with gender to predict behavior problems in IPV-exposed children (n = 176). Among four-year-old children, gender-typed gender roles were a risk factor for girls but not boys, and androgynous gender roles were protective for both boys and girls on average. However, post hoc analyses indicated the amount of IPV exposure mattered; androgynous girls exposed to chronic IPV had more behavior problems. Results illustrate the importance of societal and family gender norms in determining children’s risk for behavior problems following exposure to IPV.     

Gender Differences in Specialization in Intimate Partner Violence: Comparing the Gender Symmetry and Violent Resistance Perspectives

Research on male domestic violence offenders has typically considered them to be highly specialized offenders, and specialized theories and policies have been developed to address this type of offending. Some scholars have suggested that intimate partner violence is not as specialized as has been previously assumed. Especially in terms of gender differences, intimate partner violence research and theory suggest some variability in the level of specialization apparent for offenders. The current study uses the gender symmetry and violent resistance perspectives of women’s use of intimate partner violence to examine gender differences in specialization among a sample of intimate partner violence arrestees. Analyses employed multivariate models estimating the diversity index as a measure of specialization in general and multilevel item response theory to assess specialization in intimate partner violence specifically. Results indicate that female arrestees demonstrate significantly greater levels specialization as compared to male arrestees, providing support for the violent resistance perspective. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring Gender Differences in Citizen Allegations of Misconduct

ABSTRACT

Complaints that have been filed with the internal affairs office of a large police department in the Southeast were examined over a three year period. Possible differences between the male and female officers named in the allegations of misconduct were explored in the following areas: overall number of complaints; characteristics of the officer (age, race, and tenure); characteristics of the complaint; and characteristics of the citizen. While male officers were overrepresented in the allegations of misconduct, there were no significant differences found in the other areas of interest.     

Gender Bias in Attributions of Responsibility for Abuse

The bulk of previous research investigating attributions of responsibility in victimization scenarios have portrayed the assailant as male and the victim as female. The present study varied gender of the participant, gender of the assailant, and gender of the victim in order to examine gender bias in attributions of responsibility in abuse scenarios. Male and female participants were presented with scenarios depicting an abusive interaction between two males, two females, or a male and a female character and then made judgements of responsibility either with or without the narratives present. The results indicated that attributions made by females were biased against male victims of a male assailant when judging actions of the assailant. Attributions made by females and, to a lesser degree, attributions made by males were biased against the victim when the assailant and the participant were of the same gender and attributions of assailants' actions were made without the narrative present. In the analysis of attributions of actions of the victim, males attributed more responsibility to male than female victims. It is concluded that gender of all parties may be an important consideration when judging responsibility in victimization scenarios.     

性别歧视的界定

歧视现象,近年来越来越泛地受到关注.性别歧视、劳动歧视、地域歧视、乙肝歧视、身高歧视……人们在日常生活中的诸多领域发现了不平等、不公平的现象,宪法中的"人人平等"原则从一个抽象而空泛的规定突然变和触手可及.性别歧视作为常见的歧视形式,尤其引起了人们的关注.界定歧视的概念,制定有关歧视的法律,确立禁止歧视的原则,建立有效的事后救济途径,动员立法、司法机关以及社会各界力量,提供积极措施,通过赋予被歧视者以合法权利的方式,消除两性歧视,是法学研究面临的重大课题之一.目前,深化对性别歧视问题的讨论,是尽快启动性别歧视立法程序,推动社会和谐进步的有效步骤.     

Gender dynamics in the sentencing of white-collar offenders

Theory and empirical research often have agreed that female and white-collar offenders benefit from leniency at the sentencing stage of criminal justice system processing. An untested research question emerging from these distinct bodies of literature is whether the greatest leniency is afforded to female white-collar offenders. We investigate the individual and interactive influences of gender and white-collar conviction on judicial leniency by analyzing Florida sentencing guidelines data from 1994 to 2004 using multinomial logistic regression to model the decision to incarcerate nonviolent economic offenders in jail or prison rather than sentence them to community control. Results indicate that female street offenders sentenced by male judges receive the most lenient sentences, while male offenders are punished the harshest regardless of the gender of the sentencing judge or type of crime. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed in terms of focal concerns, familial paternalism, and attributional perspectives on judicial decision-making.     

性别分层的法律蕴涵

性别不平等、性别歧视、女人的"隐而不见性",都深深地根植于社会结构之中,深受财富、威望和权力之影响。当社会发生变化之时,一切都在改变。人类的性包含了很多社会、文化、历史因素的,性正是被这些因素所构建、所塑就的。自宋至清,无论是寡妇、女儿还是妾的财产继承权都不可和男子的继承权相提并论、同日而语,这俨然是性别在财产方面的一种分层。性别暴力是一种男性支配的表现,不是天生的性欲,当一个文化贬抑"女性化"特质时,男性就会借由性别暴力和其他形式的支配来贬抑女性。性法律是性分层和性迫害最强有力的根据。因此,性别在法律上得以分层,并成为性别不平等、性别压迫的来源、媒介甚至工具,尽管这种分层是不完全的。     

Gender Differences in Social Support Among Inmates

This paper presents the results from two independent studies investigating social support among correctional inmates focusing on the relationship between social support and psychological well-being. One study is based on males at a maximum security prison, while the other is based on females at a high medium security prison. The female inmates were found to have higher levels of social support than the sample of male inmates. It was also found that there is a relationship between social support and psychological well-being for the incarcerated women, but was not found to exist for the male inmates. These findings are consistent with the social support literature which identifies gender differences in non-institutionalized populations.     

The Gender Paradox in Prison Suicide Rates

Few studies of prison suicide have focused on suicide among female inmates, and even fewer studies have provided comparisons of rates by gender. Using national data on U.S. prisons and suicide, this study examined the “gender paradox” in prison suicide rates by comparing suicide rates of female and male inmates and U.S. residents and then examined characteristics of prisons that reported suicides. Findings indicated that rates of suicide in prison were similar for female and male inmates, but rates were higher for female inmates and lower for male inmates compared to the respective rates for female and male U.S. residents. Prisons that reported female suicides evidenced significant differences in prison conditions, including higher assault rates and mental health service utilization, compared to prisons for males and female prisons without suicide. Implications of the findings for understanding the gender paradox and for prison suicide prevention are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Felony Court Processing:

Interactive analyses examined three related hypotheses of disparity. The typicality hypothesis proposes that women are treated with chivalry in criminal processing, but only when their charges are consistent with stereotypes of female offenders. Selective chivalry predicts that decision makers extend chivalry disproportionately to white females. Differential discretion suggests that disparity is most likely in informal decisions such as charge reduction rather than in formal decisions at final sentencing. Data for the analysis derived from 9,966 felony theft cases and 18,176 felony assault cases disposed in California in 1988. Gender disparity was evident in findings that females with no prior record were more likely than similar males to receive charge reductions, and this enhanced females' chances for probation. The only indication of selective chivalry was a greater tendency to change charges of assault to nonassault among white female defendants than among minority females. Pivotal decisions concerning charge reduction provided partial support for the notion of differential discretion. The findings provided no clear support for the typicality thesis.     

Gender effects in attitudes about family violence

We present results of perceptions of family violence from 176 telephone interviews conducted in a Standard Metropolitan Area in Northwest Arkansas. Four research questions are examined: (1) How do men and women differ in their perceptions about the seriousness and causes of family violence? (2) Do men and women differ in their acceptance of specific acts of interpersonal violence and does the gender of the aggressor and victim affect gender perceptions? (3) Do men and women differ in their views about the effectiveness of different intervention agencies? (4) Do men and women differ in their willingness to report acts of child abuse and does the gender of the parent and child affect the likelihood of reporting? Results indicate that females consider the problem as more serious and view public responses to family violence as more effective. Both male and females are more tolerant of acts of aggression and violence if directed by a woman toward a man. Females are more likely to report child abuse but there are significant interactions between the respondent's gender and the gender of the parent and child.     

Gender and Race Differences in Delinquent Careers

Abstract Studies of delinquent careers have often tracked only male offenders, and have almost always failed to explore the interaction of race and gender in delinquency. This study tracks a cohort of youth whose first referral to juvenile court was in 1980, and explores the role played by both race and gender in official delinquent careers. Findings reveal that both race and gender play a significant role in official delinquency. Looking first at female delinquency, this research finds that white and nonwhite females do not differ significantly in the types of offenses they commit. Moreover, if girls are “chronic” delinquents, their offenses are most often trivial rather than serious. With males, racial differences emerge in both seriousness and chronic nature of delinquency. Nonwhite males in this cohort are more likely to be referred for personal offenses and less likely to be referred for public order and victimless offenses. Nonwhite males are also significantly more likely to become recidivists, and to have more seriously delinquent careers. This article discusses the implications of these findings, particularly with reference to the “convergence theory” of delinquency, which suggests that race plays a stronger role than gender in female delinquency. Finally, the article considers the policy implications of the current range of definitions of “chronic” delinquency.     

The Gender Gap in Sex Offender Punishment

This paper tests theoretical arguments that suggest court actors hold gendered views of sex offenders that result in a gender gap in sex offender punishment, where women who commit sexual offenses are treated more leniently than their male counterparts. We test this argument with precision matching analyses using 15 years of data on all felony sex offenders sentenced in a single state. Results indicate that gender disparities in sex offender sentencing exist and are pervasive across sex offense types. Specifically, male sex offenders are more likely to be sentenced to prison, and given longer terms, than female sex offenders. Findings are similar across sex offense severity and whether the offense involved a minor victim. These findings suggest that female sex offenders are treated more leniently than their matched male counterparts, even in instances of more serious sex offenses and those involving minor victims. Findings support theoretical arguments that contend that court decision-making is influenced by legally-irrelevant characteristics and raise questions about the source of gendered views of sex offenders and their effects on punishment approaches. Findings also raise questions about the virtue of get-tough sentencing policies that provide leeway for such dramatic variation across different groups of people.     

Pragmatic Discourse and Gender Inequality in China

Using courtroom dialogs from actual court trials in China as data, this article analyzes an emerging “pragmatic discourse,” deployed by judges to assist, but at the same time to constrain divorcing women. Through questions, statements, rebuttals, and other interactional devices, Chinese judges define the premises that underpin the law's understanding of gender equality and women's welfare. By looking at how discourses are deployed by judges and litigants, we link micro linguistic practices to more general social forces and processes. Despite their honest effort to protect women's rights, Chinese judges often inadvertently reinforce and reproduce the patriarchal norm. The data demonstrate how the hegemonic patriarchal order reasserts itself in an institutional forum that is meant to promote gender equality. The interaction of the discourses also highlights the tensions in Chinese society and displays the effect of changing social environment on the legal operation.