We analyze the statistical literature on gender and sentencing to determine whether findings of "sex effects" favoring women are related to the statistical procedures used, to court contexts and sample composition, and to conceptual dimensions of the research. The unit of analysis (or case) is court data sets; our search identified 50 such cases, most of which analyze data from the 1970s. Half of these showed sex effects favoring women; onequarter each showed mixed effects or no effects. These proportions remained constant when the sample was weighted by a quality score. In comparison with Kleck's review of race and sentencing, sex effects favoring womenare far more frequent than race effects favoring whites. Results from the weighted sample suggest that sex effects are evident in both recent and older data sets and in both recent and earlier published work. They are more likely to emerge in analyses of felony offenses, in offenses prosecuted in felony courts, in courts in urban areas, and in the decision to incarcerate rather than in the length of an incarceration sentence. We discuss three ways of interpreting sex effects and propose an agenda for future research.More than a decade ago a National Academy of Science panel concluded that the "evidence on the role of sex in sentencing is only preliminary" (Blumstein et al. 1983:17). Although they noted that "sex differences in sentencing.., have not generated a large volume of research," Blumstein et al. drew on a literature review (Nagel and Hagan 1983) to conclude tentatively that gender differences were evident to the advantage of women defendants. How to interpret such differences was unclear, however, especially when they seemed to favor a disadvantaged group. Blumstein et al. said simply that they made "sex discrimination in sentencing a somewhat unique problem" (p. 114).Downloaded by [McGill University Library] at 03:44 09 February 2015 SEX EFFECTS AND SENTENCINGIn a selective review of the literature, Steffensmeier, Kramer, and Streifel (1993) conclude that women are less likely to be incarcerated than men. At the same time, these authors point out the many methodological problems in the research literature, including crude measures of the defendants' prior record and the nature of offenses prosecuted. They suggest that findings of more lenient treatment of women may result in part from flawed research. Moreover, they argue that such differences may reflect warranted leniency toward women, not necessarily gender bias against men (p. 439). In partial agreement with Steffensmeier et al., the senior author found from a study of New Haven felony court sentencing that strong statistical sex effects, apparently favoring women, may be misleading (Daly 1994). When analyzing the details of the defendants' crimes and circumstances at closer range, only very small sentencing disparities were discovered.What are we to make of statistical studies of gender and sentencing? What does this body of research show, and what can we learn from it? Our aim is to go beyond prev...

Using institutional theory developed by organizational sociologists, I tell the story of feminist collectives in the United States. I argue that feminist collectives are a specific case of the emergence, institutionalization, and deinstitutionalization of alternative ideas and structures. I document these three processes using historical material (both academic and political) from the contemporary women's movement and more recent empirical studies of women's organizations. The contribution this analysis makes to organization building and theory building is considered.

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This paper describes an experiential learning exercise I have used to teach race discrimination in my introductory and criminology courses. The exercise is designed to introduce students to the concept of non-conscious forms of racial bias, a form of race discrimination often difficult for students to grasp. Using a hypothetical criminal case, students imagine themselves as jurors in a capital murder trial and decide whether the defendant should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. The results of the exercise are used as a basis for class discussion. Specifically, I consider why the students' findings either support or challenge previous research and consider social-psychological arguments about how racism manifests itself on a non-conscious level. After outlining the specifics of the exercise and describing the class discussion in detail, I offer an evaluation of the assignment based on student feedback and my own reflection.