Gender Differences in Sentencing Outcomes

Gender differences in criminal court outcomes for men and women are almost axiomatic in contemporary criminology. Since the early 1970s a plethora of studies in the United States has found evidence of ‘discrimination’ in sentencing. While most of these studies initially focused on issues of racial discrimination, an increasing number of researchers have since turned their attention to the examination of gender differences in court processing outcomes. This paper examines the research literature and presents data from Victoria, Australia, to consider differences in sentencing outcomes for men and women. Data on gender differences in police recorded offending and in prison statistics are also included in order to complete the picture