Different Penalties for Female Defendants

This paper argues that the penalties imposed on female defendants convicted of a crime should differ from those given to male defendants convicted of the same crimes. Women represent a very small proportion of the criminal population in America. Their gender has, historically, tended to give them different treatment from that of the men undergoing the same system of justice. Most often, women have been treated more leniently, although some aspects of automatic justice, particularly the mandatory sentencing system, have worked against them. This paper argues that women should be continue to be given different penalties from men because their relationship to the judicial system and to society as a whole is different from that of men, though not for all of the same reasons that have dictated past discrepancies. The three primary reasons that women should be sentenced differently are because existing sentences derive from the bias of the white male view of the world and male-centered motivations for committing crimes, that a significant number of female criminals are also mothers with primary responsibility for their children, and that judges and juries exist to evaluate individual circumstances, not to dispense arbitrary justice in the name of social equality.

Women are such a relative rarity as perpetrators of crime that the word "criminal" is often considered to be an exclusively male label. Few crime statistics bother to separate out female criminals, preferring to f

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was that these laws would eliminate disparities in sentencing and be fair. But the implementation of sentencing guidelines has increased the bias of the criminal justice system against poor females and poor black males (p. 58). Susan Nadler (1987) agrees: "The courts are treating women more stringently now, sentencing is harsher. In many ways, perhaps in ways they didn't anticipate, women are becoming equal to men" (p. 18). Rules that try to remain blind to individual characteristics including gender often end up working against the female criminal. Women are frequently excluded from "non-incarceratory sentencing options," such as probation or parole (Durham, 1996, p. 217). Forer points out that the criteria for deciding whether or not to grant bail, give probation, or allow parole were drawn up to evaluate a primarily young, male population. She (1994) writes, "The guideline rules are sensible in about 70 percent of the cases. But the injustice and dangers that ensue in the other 30 percent should give every member of the public grave concern" (p. 58). The types of crimes committed by women are often different from those committed by men, even when the labels used are the same. Two-thirds of the women who commit vio

Category: Government - D