The Role Of Gender In Criminal Justice

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s Use Your Gender to Get What You Want Dianna Arguello Multiculturalism Criminal Justice DeVry University November 13, 2014 In any argument you will have two sides, one group for the argument and one against it. When deciding what side to be on, you need to weight all the facts and listen to both arguments. The question to this argument is, “should gender play so significant a role in accounting for differential treatment through the criminal justice process?” Let us start with the argument against gender playing a role in determining differential treatment through the criminal justice process. Females have always been treated differently especially during the criminal justice process no…show more content…
Over the last twenty-five years women and girls caught in the criminal justice system has skyrocketed (Shannan Catalano, 2009). If females were being treated more leiniant there would not be as many women and girls incarcerated. Women battle the gender bias courts and would also like to see things done more fairly. Gender bias impairs not only a woman’s chances of winning relief from her abuser but also limits the ability of her attorney, if female, to prove her case (Dragiewicz, 2012). A batterer who does file for custody will frequently win, as he has numerous advantages over his partner in custody litigation. These include, 1) his typical ability to afford better representation (often while simultaneously insisting that he has no money with which to pay child support), 2) his marked advantage over his victim in psychological testing, since she is the one who has been traumatized by the abuse, 3) his ability to manipulate custody evaluators to be sympathetic to him, and 4) his ability to manipulate and intimidate the children regarding their statements to the custody evaluator (Dragiewicz, 2012). Men will make females to look like the problem in the relationship since they are more hostile and disjointed due to the trauma they have endured. Courts will then see the male as friendly and calm and take his…show more content…
The courts need to prosecute the criminal according to crimes committed and not based off of what gender they are. With that said, the courts do need to take into account what abuse may have lead to the violent act. Was the attack premeditated or a lapse of psychological judgment due to years of mental and physical abuse? Most violent crimes committed by females are because of the abuse they and possibly their children have endured. Those cases the courts should show leniency towards the females. A mother will stop at nothing when it comes to protecting their child, which includes hurting, attacking, or even killing someone that may be causing their child harm. This should fall into a self defense category and again the courts should show leniency when sentencing the
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