After reading the assigned text and articles for this week, answer one of the following questions in your own words using support from the readings and your own opinion:
Describe the chivalry and evil woman hypotheses. Give one example for each of these to show how women are differentially treated by the criminal justice system. Then, tell us whether you believe that women should receive differential treatment by the criminal justice system or not and why.
OR
Describe two extralegal and two legal factors that can influence judicial sentencing/pretrial decisions for women in the criminal justice system. How do these factors typically influence judicial decision-making (pretrial, longer/shorter sentences)? Do you think that judges should be able to use their discretion to determine sentences/bail for female offenders? Why or why not?
Reply:
The chivalry hypothesis claims that women are given leniency for any crimes they may have committed regardless of their wrong doing based on their gender and the evil woman hypothesis claims that women are given a harsher punishment for their crimes by “breaking social norms.” An example for the chivalry hypothesis could be ‘pretty privilege,’ and this is when someone who is attractive is given the upper hand or leniency. This could occur if someone is getting pulled over for a speeding ticket or if they committed a crime and got less prison time then they were supposed to. An example for the evil woman hypothesis would be a man and a woman committing the same crime but the woman getting more time because “she should know better.” In Bush-Basket and Smiths article, it claimed that women’s incarceration rates have significantly increased more than male incarceration since 1999. Women should not be given any special treatment for crimes because it’s not about who committed the crime, it’s about what crime they committed and why. Our biased opinions tends to affect our decision makings that often times leads to unjust rulings.
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