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Do You Receive a Lighter Prison Sentence Because You Are a Woman? An Economic Analysis of Federal Criminal Sentencing Guidelines

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Author Info
Supriya Sarnikar () (Westfield State College)
Todd Sorensen () (University of Arizona and IZA)
Ronald L. Oaxaca () (University of Arizona and IZA)

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Abstract

The Federal criminal sentencing guidelines struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 required that males and females who commit the same crime and have the same prior criminal record be sentenced equally. Using data obtained from the United States Sentencing Commission’s records, we examine whether there exists any gender-based bias in criminal sentencing decisions. We treat months in prison as a censored variable in order to account for the frequent outcome of no prison time. Additionally, we control for the self-selection of the defendant into guilty pleas through use of an endogenous switching regression model. A new decomposition methodology is employed. Our results indicate that women receive more lenient sentences even after controlling for circumstances such as the severity of the offense and past criminal history.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 2870.

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Length: 53 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2870

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Related research
Keywords: discrimination; criminal justice; decomposition analysis; limited dependent variable analysis;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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References listed on IDEAS
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
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