Understanding the influence of victim gender in death penalty cases: The importance of vctim race, sex-related victimization, and jury decision making

Criminology

Volumn 45, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 865-891

  Williams, Marian R ^a   Demuth, Stephen ^a   Holcomb, Jefferson E ^a  

^a BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Death penalty; Gender; Race; Victims

Indexed keywords

EID: 38149091917     PISSN: 00111384     EISSN: 17459125     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2007.00095.x     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Albonetti, Celesta. 1987. Prosecutorial discretion: The effects of uncertainty. Law & Society Review 21 : 291 313.
2. Albonetti, Celesta, and John Hepburn. 1996. Prosecutorial discretion to defer criminalization: The effects of defendant's ascribed and achieved status characteristics. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 12 : 63 81.
3. Baldus, David, and George Woodworth. 1998. Race discrimination and the death penalty: An empirical and legal overview. In America's Experiment with Capital Punishment, eds. James Acker, Robert Bohm, and Charles Lanier. Durham : Carolina Academic Press.
4. Baldus, David, George Woodworth, and Charles Pulaski. 1990 Equal Justice and the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis. Boston, MA : Northeastern University Press.
5. Baldus, David, George Woodworth, Catherine Grosso, and Aaron Christ. 2002. Arbitrariness and discrimination in the administration of the death penalty: A legal and empirical analysis of the Nebraska experience (1973-1999). Nebraska Law Review 88 : 486 753.
6. Baldus, David, George Woodworth, David Zuckerman, Neil Alan Weiner, and Barbara Broffitt. 1998. Racial discrimination and the death penalty in the post-Furman era: An empirical and legal overview, with recent findings from Philadelphia. Cornell Law Review 83 : 1638 770.
7. Baumer, Eric, Steven Messner, and Richard Felson. 2000. The role of victim characteristics in the disposition of murder cases. Justice Quarterly 17 : 281 307.
8. Beck, James, and Robert Shumsky. 1997. A comparison of retained and appointed counsel in cases of capital murder. Law and Human Behavior 21 : 525 38.
9. Chiricos, Theodore, and Charles Crawford. 1995. Race and imprisonment: A contextual assessment of the evidence. In Ethnicity, Race, and Crime, ed. Darnell Hawkins. Albany : State University of New York Press.
10. Daly, Kathleen. 1987. Structure and practice of familial-based justice in a criminal court. Law & Society Review 21 : 265 90.
11. Daly, Kathleen. 1989. Neither conflict nor labeling nor paternalism will suffice: Intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and family in criminal justice decisions. Crime and Delinquency 35 : 136 68.
12. Daly, Kathleen. 1994 Gender, Crime, and Punishment. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press.
13. Demuth, Stephen. 2003. Racial and ethnic differences in pretrial release decisions and outcomes: A comparison of Hispanic, black, and white felony arrestees. Criminology 41 : 873 908.
14. Demuth, Stephen, and Darrell Steffensmeier. 2004. The impact of gender and race - ethnicity in the pretrial release process. Social Problems 51 : 222 42.
15. Dixon, Jo. 1995. The organizational context of criminal sentencing. American Journal of Sociology 5 : 1157 98.
16. Farrell, Ronald, and Victoria Swigert. 1986. Adjudication in homicide: An interpretive analysis of the effects of defendant and victim social characteristics. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 23 : 349 69.
17. Ferree, Myra, and Elaine Hall. 1996. Gender, race, and class in mainstream textbooks. American Sociological Review 61 : 929 50.
18. Furman v. Georgia. 1972. 408 U.S. 238.
19. Gross, Samuel, and Robert Mauro. 1989 Death and Discrimination: Racial Disparities in Capital Sentencing. Boston, MA : Northeastern University Press.
20. Hagan, John. 1987. Review essay: A great truth in the study of crime. Criminology 25 : 421 8.
21. Hawkins, Darnell. 1987. Beyond anomalies: Rethinking the conflict perspective on race and criminal punishment. Social Forces 65 : 719 45.
22. Hindson, Stephanie, Hillary Potter, and Michael Radelet. 2006. Race, gender, region, and death sentencing in Colorado, 1980-1999. Colorado Law Review 77 : 549 74.
23. Holcomb, Jefferson, Marian Williams, and Stephen Demuth. 2004. White female victims and death penalty research. Justice Quarterly 21 : 877 902.
24. Kalven, Harry, and Hans Zeisel. 1966 The American Jury. Boston, MA : Little, Brown.
25. Keil, Thomas, and Gennaro Vito. 1992. The effects of the Furman and Gregg decisions on black - white execution ratios in the South. Journal of Criminal Justice 20 : 217 26.
26. Kleck, Gary. 1981. Racial discrimination in criminal sentencing: A critical evaluation of the evidence with additional evidence on the death penalty. American Sociological Review 46 : 783 805.
27. Kleck, Gary. 1991. Review of Equal Justice and the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis, by David C. Baldus, George Woodworth, and Charles A. Pulaski, Jr. Contemporary Sociology 20 : 598 9.
28. LaFree, Gary. 1989 Rape and Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA : Wadsworth.
29. Langum, David. 1994 Crossing Over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press.
30. McCleskey v. Kemp. 1987. 481 U.S. S. Ct. 279.
31. Morgan, Patricia. 1978. The legislation of drug law: Economic crisis and social control. Journal of Drug Issues 8 : 53 62.
32. Myers, Martha, and Susette Talarico. 1986. The social contexts of racial discrimination in sentencing. Social Problems 33 : 236 51.
33. Paternoster, Raymond. 1984. Prosecutorial discretion in requesting the death penalty: A case of victim-based racial discrimination. Law & Society Review 18 : 437 78.
34. Paternoster, Raymond, Robert Brame, Sarah Bacon, Andrew Ditchfield, David Bierie, Karen Beckman, et al. 2003. An Empirical Analysis of Maryland's Death Sentencing System with Respect to the Influence of Race and Legal Jurisdiction: Final Report. http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/pdf/finalrep.pdf.
35. Pierce, Glenn, and Michael Radelet. 2002. Race, region, and death sentencing in Illinois, 1988-1997. Oregon Law Review 81 : 39 96.
36. Pierce, Glenn, and Michael Radelet. 2005. The impact of legally inappropriate factors on death sentencing for California homicides, 1990-1999. Santa Clara Law Review 46 : 41 6.
37. Radelet, Michael, and Glenn Pierce. 1985. Race and prosecutorial discretion in homicide cases. Law & Society Review 19 : 587 621.
38. Radelet, Michael, and Glenn Pierce. 1991. Choosing who will die: Race and the death penalty in Florida. Florida Law Review 43 : 1 34.
39. Snell, Tracy. 2006 Capital Punishment, 2005. Washington, DC : Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
40. Sorensen, Jonathan, and Donald Wallace. 1995. Capital punishment in Missouri: Examining the issues of racial disparity. Behavioral Sciences and the Law 13 : 61 80.
41. Spears, Jeffrey, and Cassia Spohn. 1997. The effect of evidence factors and victim characteristics on prosecutors' charging decisions in sexual assault cases. Justice Quarterly 14 : 501 24.
42. Spohn, Cassia. 1994. Crime and the social control of blacks: Offender/victim race and the sentencing of violent offenders. In Inequality, Crime, and Social Control, eds. George Bridges and Martha Myers. Boulder, CO : Westview.
43. Spohn, Cassia, and David Holleran. 2000. The imprisonment penalty paid by young, unemployed, Black, and Hispanic male offenders. Criminology 38 : 281 306.
44. Stanko, Elizabeth. 1981. The impact of victim assessment on prosecutors' screening decisions: The case of the New York County district attorney's office. Law & Society Review 16 : 225 39.
45. Stauffer, Amy, Dwayne Smith, John Cochran, Sondra Fogel, and Beth Bjerregaard. 2006. The interaction between victim race and gender on sentencing outcomes in capital murder trials: A further exploration. Homicide Studies 10 : 98 117.
46. Steffensmeier, Darrell, and Stephen Demuth. 2006. Does gender modify the effects of race-ethnicity on criminal sanctioning? Sentences for male and female white, black, and Hispanic defendants. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 22 : 241 61.
47. Steffensmeier, Darrell, Jeffrey Ulmer, and John Kramer. 1998. The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology 36 : 763 98.
48. Sundby, Scott. 2003. The capital jury and empathy: The problem of worthy and unworthy victims. Cornell Law Review 88 : 343 81.
49. Thomson, Ernie. 1997. Discrimination and the death penalty in Arizona. Criminal Justice Review 22 : 65 76.
50. U.S. Government Accounting Office. 1990 Death Penalty Sentencing Research Indicates Pattern of Racial Disparities. Washington, DC : U.S. Government Accounting Office.
51. Vito, Gennaro, and Thomas Keil. 1988. Capital sentencing in Kentucky: An analysis of the factors influencing decision making int eh post-Gregg period. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 79 : 483 502.
52. Williams, Marian, and Jefferson Holcomb. 2001. Racial disparity and death sentences in Ohio. Journal of Criminal Justice 29 : 207 18.
53. Zatz, Marjorie. 1984. Race, ethnicity, and determinate sentencing: A new dimension to an old controversy. Criminology 22 : 147 71.