Theoretical and empirical research pertaining to the influence of gender on sentencing outcomes has focused almost exclusively on the gender of offenders. What this literature has not fully considered is how the gender of crime victims might affect sentencing outcomes. Using data for offenders convicted of three violent crimes in the seven largest metro counties in Texas in 1991, the authors find evidence that offenders who victimized females received substantially longer sentences than offenders who victimized males. Results also show that victim gender effects on sentence length are conditioned by offender gender, such that male offenders who victimize females received the longest sentence of any other victim gender/offender gender combination. However, whereas these effects are observed for sentence length, no victim gender effects are observed on whether offenders received an incarcerative or nonincarcerative sentence. The authors address the implications of their findings for theory and subsequent research.

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Control balance theory, couched as an integrated explanation of deviance, has been tested thus far using exclusively a "scenario" method that assessed respondents' perceived probability of deviance. We build on these efforts with a measure of the frequency of "defiant" deviance to assess both the additive effects of control ratios and the conditional effects of constraints and impulsivity, identified as key to the larger "causal process" affecting deviance. Supportive of the theory, control ratio deficits were positively related to defiant deviance. However, control ratio surpluses were positively associated with defiant deviance, which does not support theoretical predictions. Analyses of contingent effects show that the effects of control ratio deficits and surpluses are stronger when impulsivity is higher, supporting the theory, but that variation in constraints did not influence the effects of control ratios in a manner predicted by the theory. We explore the implications of these findings and suggest modifications for the theory.

An extensive body of research shows that capital sentences tend to be more likely for Blacks who kill Whites, while more recent studies point to a higher likelihood of capital sentences for killers of White females. The present research broadens these areas of scholarship by including Hispanics and considering sentences for other types of violent crimes. Supporting theory are findings that longer sentences are meted out to offenders who victimize White females, and to Hispanic and African American offenders who victimize Whites. These findings, however, are confined to homicide cases and absent from sexual assault and robbery cases. Contradicting predictions are longer sentences for offenders who victimized Hispanic females, which is observed for robbery as well as homicide. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Objective. Many studies find that females benefit from their gender in sentencing decisions. Few researchers, however, address whether the gender-sentencing association might be stronger for some crimes, such as minor nonviolent offending, and weaker for other offenses, such as serious violent crime. Method. Using a large random sample of convicted offenders in Texas drawn from a statewide project on sentencing practices mandated by the 73rd Texas Legislature, logistic regression and OLS regression analyses of likelihood of imprisonment and prison length illustrate the importance of looking at sentencing outcomes not only in terms of gender but also in terms of crime type. Results. Specifically, we find that the effect of gender on sentencing does vary by crime type, but not in a consistent or predicted fashion. For both property and drug offending, females are less likely to be sentenced to prison and also receive shorter sentences if they are sentenced to prison. For violent offending, however, females are no less likely than males to receive prison time, but for those who do, females receive substantially shorter sentences than males. Conclusions. We conclude that such variation in the gender-sentencing association across crime type is largely due to features of Texas' legal code that channel the level of discretion available to judges depending on crime type and whether incarceration likelihood or sentence length is examined.The sentencing of criminals has been the subject of repeated exploratory inquiry by social scientists, particularly sociologists. Since the work of Nagel and Weitzman (1971) and Pope (1975), who found that women appear to receive preferential treatment in sentencing over males, efforts to explain this disparity have centered around two theories: chivalry and the more recent focal concerns. As our literature review highlights, efforts to decipher how the sentencing process may benefit females are, at times, inconsistent. We view our study as additional fuel to the sentencing dialogue and, in parn Direct correspondence to S. Fernando Rodriguez, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968 hfernando@utep.edui. Data and code book will be provided to those who wish to replicate these findings. The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.