No abstract

Using data from the Baldus, Woodworth, and Pulaski (1990) study of Georgia's death penalty system, we examine the influence of victim gender in death penalty cases. Furthermore, to improve our understanding of the meaning of victim gender, we consider 1) the joint effects of victim gender and victim race, 2) victimization characteristics that might explain victim gender effects, and 3) the impact of victim gender at different decision-making stages in the death penalty case process. We find that both victim gender and race are associated with death sentencing outcomes and that an examination of the joint effects of victim gender and race reveals considerable differences in the likelihood of receiving a death sentence between the most disparate victim race-gender groups. In particular, it seems that black male victim cases are set apart from all others in terms of leniency afforded to defendants.

To expand our understanding of gender inequality and violent crime, this study provides an assessment of the relationship between gender inequality and lethal violence against women. The authors use a cross-sectional design with racially disaggregated census data for 158 large U.S. cities in 1990 to assess the degree to which women's absolute status and their status relative to men affect their risk of homicide victimization. Overall, the findings suggest that although certain measures of women's absolute and relative socioeconomic status are related to female homicide victimization rates, when race-specific measures are used, the effects hold only for White women.During the past three decades, researchers have produced a substantial number of studies examining the link between inequality and homicide (for reviews, see Land, McCall, & Cohen, 1990;Vieraitis, 2000). Although this body of literature has considered the relationships between homicide and income inequality, racial inequality, and to a lesser extent, gender inequality, studies have overlooked the intersection of race, class, and gender. To extend our understanding of homicide and inequality, this study assesses the relationship between gender inequality and female homicide victimization for both White and Black women.The empirical research is extremely limited with regard to gender inequality and female homicide victimization. A review of the literature reveals only seven studies that focus on homicide, none of which examine the impact of race on these relationships. The 35

Several death penalty studies have examined whether victim race is associated with differential death sentencing outcomes; however, these studies tend to ignore the potential interaction of victim race and victim gender on decision-making outcomes. The present article examined the impact of the interaction of victim race and gender on death sentences in Ohio. When victim race and gender were considered, those homicides with white female victims were significantly more likely to result in a death sentence than homicides with other victim characteristics. This finding expands on previous research by identifying a specific victim gender-race combination, white female victim, as an extra-legal factor that may partially explain previously identified race of victim disparities in death sentencing. ARTICLE Research on factors associated with particular sentencing outcomes is common in the social science literature. There has long been an interest in determining whether there is equitable distribution of punishment for similarly situated offenders. This research has varied from the consideration of different offenses, defendant characteristics, victim characteristics, and combinations of these factors (for reviews see Daly and Tonry, 1997;

A number of studies have addressed the respective influences of such legal factors as offense seriousness, and such extralegal factors as race, on imprisonment decisions. One factor that is not easily classified as either legal or extralegal—pretrial detention—has not received as much attention as the "typical" legal and extralegal variables, although some researchers feel that pretrial detention plays a pivotal role in imprisonment decisions. This exploratory article assesses the relationship between pretrial detention and the decision to incarcerate in adult felony cases in a Florida county, controlling for various legal and extralegal factors. Results indicate that those defendants who had been subject to pretrial detention were more likely to be incarcerated, and to receive longer sentences if they were incarcerated, than defendants who had been released pending case disposition.