Are Males and Females Treated Differently in the Criminal Justice System?

Luz Santiago March 12, 2013 Professor Carty Sex and Gender Research Paper Are males and females treated differently in the criminal justice system? My intro Many people believe that the criminal justice system treats males and females differently. In my opinion I believe that this is false. Maybe it’s because the criminal justice system is strict on males because they are often the ones getting arrested. In this research paper I will determine if this is true.

The definition of criminal justice system is the system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. Source #1 As I was doing my research I came upon this book titled “The Gender of Crime” by Dana M. Britton. In this book it describes all different crimes and how men and women are punish in the criminal justice system. It states that women convicts are usually more violent, have been given several more chances, and that’s just the way we were raised as society was raised.

We were raised to respect women; women shouldn’t be taken away from their children. It also states that men are usually arrested more because they commit more crimes. Source#2 Statistic Statistics states that in 2009 6. 8%of all federal/state prison was women the total was 105,197. It also states that in 2009 93. 2% of men in the federal/state prison totaling to 1,443,500. Many people believe this is because of the chivalry theory, this theory explains how must male officials are more lenient on women.

It’s not that they are chivalry must of time it’s because of how the crimes are committed. For example the reason why women are less likely to receive the death penalty is that they commit different kinds of murder then men do. Source#3 statistic The America Crime Survey 2009/10 showed that men were at greater risk of personal crime and violence than women. Women were at higher risk of theft from the person and intimate violence. In 2009, there were differences in the types of sanctions issued to men and women at court.

A higher proportion of female defendants received fines than males (77% compared with 63%), but lower proportions of female defendants received community sentences (10% compared with 16%), suspended sentences (2% compared with 4%), and immediate custody (3% and 9% respectively). In 2009, newly received women in prison were serving proportionately shorter custodial sentences than men. Almost half (48%) of newly received men in prison were serving sentences lasting longer than six months compared to two-fifths (38%) of newly received women.

Men and women’s behaviour in prison also differed. In 2009, the rate of punishment in prison establishments was higher for women (150 adjudications per 100 prisoners) than for men (124 adjudications per 100 prisoners). More than one in three female prisoners (37%) self-harmed compared with fewer than one in ten males (7%). As in previous years, men accounted for the majority of self-inflicted deaths in custody (57 of the total 60 recorded in 2009).