Examining the impact of familial paternalism on the sentencing decision: Gender leniency or legitimate judicial consideration?

Nationally, the rate of incarcerated women is at an all-time high [Chesney-Lind, M., & Pasko, L. (2012). The female offender: Girls, women, and crime (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Sage; West, H. C., Sabol, W. J., & Greenman, S. J. (2010). Prisoners in 2009. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice]. Even with these significant increases women defendants remain much less likely to receive sentences of incarceration than male defendants. Considering the evidence showing that women are often sentenced less harshly than men, research continues to examine the cause of gender disparities in judicial sentencing decisions. This chapter will examine the research that contends that the cause of the gender disparity may not actually be due to gender leniency but rather judicial considerations of the risks and costs of punishing female versus male defendants due to different gender roles.