TY - JOUR
T1 - Predictors of Death Sentencing for Minority, Equal, and Majority Female Juries in Capital Murder Trials
AU - Richards, Tara N.
AU - Bjerregaard, Beth E.
AU - Cochran, Joseph
AU - Smith, M. Dwayne
AU - Fogel, Sondra J.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - The relatively small body of prior research investigating whether the sex composition of juries impacts sentencing decisions has produced equivocal results. Exploring this topic further, the current study used a large sample of capital cases from North Carolina ( n = 675) to examine (a) whether jury sex composition predicted jury capital punishment sentencing decisions; and (b) whether there were different models of sentencing for male-majority, equal male-female, and female-majority juries. When we controlled for a number of legal and extralegal factors, our findings indicated that jury sex composition was independently related to sentencing outcomes. Specifically, equal male-female juries were significantly more likely and female-majority juries were significantly less likely to choose the death penalty versus a sentence of life in prison. In addition, different models (predictors) of sentencing were revealed for each of the jury sex compositions. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.
AB - The relatively small body of prior research investigating whether the sex composition of juries impacts sentencing decisions has produced equivocal results. Exploring this topic further, the current study used a large sample of capital cases from North Carolina ( n = 675) to examine (a) whether jury sex composition predicted jury capital punishment sentencing decisions; and (b) whether there were different models of sentencing for male-majority, equal male-female, and female-majority juries. When we controlled for a number of legal and extralegal factors, our findings indicated that jury sex composition was independently related to sentencing outcomes. Specifically, equal male-female juries were significantly more likely and female-majority juries were significantly less likely to choose the death penalty versus a sentence of life in prison. In addition, different models (predictors) of sentencing were revealed for each of the jury sex compositions. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.
KW - Death penalty
KW - jury sex compositions
KW - gender and criminal justice processing
UR - https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/sok_facpub/133
UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2015.1115802
U2 - 10.1080/08974454.2015.1115802
DO - 10.1080/08974454.2015.1115802
M3 - Article
VL - 26
JO - Women & Criminal Justice
JF - Women & Criminal Justice
ER -