Gender and the Death Penalty

Paper Summary:

This paper considers why the death penalty is much more often given as a sentence for men who have been convicted of committing a capital crime than it is for women who have been convicted of similar crimes. The paper considers first, whether the death penalty is a barbaric form of punishment and second, why it is the rule and not the exception that women who have committed a capital crime generally have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment (and even parole, after a number of years).

From the Paper:

"Penologists and criminologists now agree that capital murder committed by women some years ago is seen differently, if the killing was the result of spousal abuse. It has not usually set these women free, but certainly reduced the time they would have to spend behind bars. In California, for example, a mother killed the sexual predator who had molested her son. She was convicted (and after a minimum sentence, is now free), but there are those who wonder if it had been the father who had done the killing, whether he would have gotten off quite as easily."

More papers on Gender and the Death Penalty:

• Research Paper # 55231 : "Women and the Death Penalty"
• Analytical Essay # 71428 : "Abortion and the Death Penalty"
• Analytical Essay # 72291 : "Life and Death: Abortion and the Death Penalty"

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