## Criminal Justice System Biases Favoring Women
A substantial body of research documents differential sentencing and treatment of women and men in the criminal justice system:
- Kathleen Dale, "Neither Conflict Nor Labeling Nor Paternalism Will Suffice: Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Family in Criminal Court Decisions" (1989): https://sci-hub.st/10.1177/0011128789035001007
- Edward L. Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote, "The Determinants of Punishment: Deterrence, Incapacitation and Vengeance" (2000): https://glaeser.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum7706/files/glaeser/files/the_determinants_of_punishment_deterrence_incapacitation_and_vengeance.pdf
- Alexes Harris, Heather Evans, and Katherine Beckett, "Drawing Blood from Stones: Legal Debt and Social Inequality in the Contemporary United States" (2010): https://faculty.washington.edu/kbeckett/articles/AJS.pdf
- Sonja Starr, "Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases" (2012): https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=law_econ_current
- NCFM: Sentencing Disparities between men and women: https://ncfm.org/2026/04/news/issues/criminal-sentencing/](https://ncfm.org/2026/04/news/issues/criminal-sentencing/
- "Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the U.S. Federal Courts" by David B. Mustard: https://web.archive.org/web/20150626205923/http://people.terry.uga.edu/mustard/sentencing
- Cassia Spohn – “Sentencing Disparity and Discrimination: A Focus on Gender” (Chapter 4 of *How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment*, 2nd ed.): https://sk.sagepub.com/book/mono/how-do-judges-decide-2e/chpt/sentencing-disparity-discrimination-focus-gender
- Rodriguez, Curry & Lee (2006) – “Gender Differences in Criminal Sentencing: Do Effects Vary Across Violent, Property, and Drug Offenses?”: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4790924_Gender_Differences_in_Criminal_Sentencing_Do_Effects_Vary_Across_Violent_Property_and_Drug_Offenses and https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2006.00383.x
- Curry, Lee & Rodriguez (2004) –
“Does Victim Gender Increase Sentence Severity? Further
Explorations of Gender Dynamics and Sentencing Outcomes?”: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249718828_Does_Victim_Gender_Increase_Sentence_Severity_Further_Explorations_of_Gender_Dynamics_and_Sentencing_Outcomes
- Permutations of
Ninjas, "On Why Most Convicts Are Men (And It Probably Has
Nothing To Do With Men Committing More Crime)" (2012): https://web.archive.org/web/20150910205853/http://permutationofninjas.org/post/21544144182/on-why-most-convicts-are-men-and-it-probably-has
- William Wilbanks, "Are female felons treated more leniently by the criminal justice system?" (1986) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418828600089101
- Matthew Zingraff and Randall Thomson,
"Differential sentencing of women and men in the USA" (1984): https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=KOWLcZgAAAAJ&citation_for_view=KOWLcZgAAAAJ:roLk4NBRz8UC
## Historical Perspective
Finally, consider this observation from E. Belfort Bax in “Feminism and Female Suffrage” (*The New Age*, 30 May 1910):
> “In the face of the statement of law
and of facts there given, the game of bluff by which the
advocates of ‘woman’s rights’ succeed in drawing tears from
guileless simpletons by diatribes on the cruelly unjust status
of Women under man-made laws, would have ceased to be possible.
[...]
>
> [...] the chief argument for the imperativeness and urgency
of votes for women insisted on by Suffragettes is mainly the
unfairness of treatment meted out to women. Now, it is clear
that when it is shown that much-decried man makes laws wholly
and solely in the interests of the opposite sex and to the
detriment of his own, any conclusions drawn from the contrary
assumption vanish in smoke. [...]
>
> Instead, not only do those who are most zealous in
clamouring for the franchise do their best to bluff their dupes
by posing as the victims of a non-existent male oppression, but
they, often enough, expressly proclaim their intention of
pressing forward legislation the effect of which would be to
enhance the existing privileges of their sex.”