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Do You Receive a Lighter Prison Sentence Because You are a Woman? An Economic Analysis of Federal Criminal Sentencing Outcomes |
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IZA Research Seminar |
Place:Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, 53113 Bonn |
日期:20.07.2006, 12:00 - 13:30 |
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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 a switching regression model with endogenous witching. 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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Download complete paper |
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| For more information, please contactseminar@iza.org |
