Sexual Relationships
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Why are men sentenced to longer prison terms than women for the same crimes?

A man gets falsely accused of rape and goes to prison for 30 years but a woman actually rapes a 12 year old and gets 9 years.
Updates:
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If you're a convicted criminal, the best thing you can have going for you might be your gender. A new study by Sonja Starr, an assistant law professor at the University of Michigan, found that men are given much higher sentences than women convicted of the same crimes in federal court. The study found that men receive sentences that are 63 percent higher, on average, than their female counterparts. Starr also found that females arrested for a crime are also significantly more likely to avoid
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incarceration if convicted. Other research has found evidence of the same gender gap, though Starr asserts that the disparity is actually larger than previously suspected because other studies haven't looked at the role of plea bargains and other pre-sentencing steps in the criminal justice system. A 2009 study suggested the difference in sentencing might arise because "judges treat women more leniently for practical reasons, such as their greater caretaking responsibility."
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Most Helpful Girls

  • I don't think it's feminism like some posters do, because female sexual abuse of boys has always been underreported and ignored. It's another warped gender stereotype that male people must always want sex or that they should be strong enough to overcome their attackers. Even when the boys are teens and hormonally primed for sex doesn't mean that it's ok for an adult to manipulate and take advantage of them, as older people who target teens for sex are emotionally damaged

    It disgusts me.

    Though, for the most part, sexual abuse victims in general keep their stories secret because the abuser is a person they trust like a family member, friend religious leader, partner, etc. Only a small percentage of sexual abuse is often talked about - the stranger type, which is the least common.

    It's a dark thing that people don't really want to talk about honestly because the actual truth is so uncomfortable.

  • And Black people are given longer sentences then whites. There is just a perception problem among society that leaks into our legal system. I agree it needs to be stopped.

  • Same with blacks and Hispanics getting longer sentences than whites.

    Prejudice. They suck.

Most Helpful Guys

  • That's an easy yes.

    There are endless documented proof of this everywhere.
    A big example is the one currently in California where a male raped a 9 year old over the course of a year and got (a well deserved) 366 years.
    A female in the same area of cali raped two 9 year boys over the course of a year and got 5 years probation.

    Women are given less punishment because their crimes are always excused or forgiven for bullshit "emotional" issues.

  • They probabbly werent the same crime
    If they were then I don't know
    Also the fact that the guy was falsy accused really has nothing to do with this because the jury thought he was guilty
    You make it sound like they knew he wasn't guilty but they gave him the max punishment anyway

    • It's a well documented phenomenon that women get more lenient punishment than do men for the same crime. Even if it's a group type crime and the woman is the ringleader.

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What Girls & Guys Said

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  • Show me the source you got this from...

    • https://i.imgur.com/frx4oS2.png
      https://i.imgur.com/b8750uF.png

      Search google for sentencing disparity. There are hundreds of stats.

      www.law.umich.edu/.../...r_gender_disparities.aspx

      www.standard.co.uk/.../...in-a-decade-7240659.html

      www.telegraph.co.uk/.../...to-women-criminals.html

      scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/.../viewcontent.cgi

      www.huffingtonpost.com/.../...r-gap_n_1874742.html

    • @LogicBomber Sadly there seems to be a great leniency given to women is cases of sexual assault. Personally I find it disgusting, but you have to ask yourself why the judges are allowed to do it. Why are they obviously allowed to let their own prejudices and opinion dictate a sentence. I find it awful, gender should never ever play a part in sentencing. It has no place. I've never agreed with a single judge passing sentence, they often don't really know the case properly or let personal emotion dictate the severity. It isn't right and many have a very traditional mindset, one in which women are a fairer sex and less to blame for some reason. As if not possessing a dick means you can't be a sexual abuser.

    • The reason it is allowed to happen is because society kid gloves women in almost every aspect, because it has been constantly pushed that women are victims of the big evil man and his "patriarchy". They treat women like they are perpetual victims and that everything they do is somehow a mans fault. Be it through prior abuse or control or what not. They excuse or forgive evil acts that women commit because they don't want to cause them emotional trauma. In Canada there was a young girl who just stabbed 9 people in her school and the media is making her the victim of bullying and mental issues. But a male who is bullied and finally snaps is ran up a pole as a psychopath loser who we should all hate because he hurt others. Society (the media, school systems, the courts, public opinion) all need to stop believing the false victim hood narrative and stop ignoring, excusing or forgiving evil females because it's easy to say only men are evil when you ignore all female crimes.

    • Show All

  • Warped view of society that a boy should want it and it's not that bad. While a girl shouldn't and they're more innocent/precious than boys of the same age.

  • I blame feminism. LEL

  • Female empowerment! Go feminism!
    And they wonder why we get so sick of feminism.

  • because at the point where he got the 30 years sentence, it was of couse assumed the accusations weren´t fake. it´s nonsense to judge this difference without looking at the specific cases.

    • So if it wasn't fake it makes it ok that he got 30 years and she got only 9?

    • depending on what exactly they were accused of doing, yes. i mean i don´t know how "fixed" penalties are in your country but there are very set penalties where i live so your sentence depends on what exactly you did. often there can be multiple offences being subsumed under the general "rape" accusation. depending on which offences go along with the rape and on the exact facts, the sentence can vary quite a bit.

    • there are a lot of factors at play that can work for you to shorten the sentence you get. for example being admitting and appologetic can mitigate a lot.

  • Because we have tits. And its not fair.

  • because vagina. why else?

    • I want to change my answer to "because patriarchy, obviously"

  • Sexism towards men.

  • And other races get even longer sentences than white people. Society isn't fair.

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