The Impact of Gender-Based Family Roles on Criminal Sentencing

Recent perspectives on gender differences in sanctioning link differential outcomes to variation in gender based family roles via informal control, familial paternalism, and functional type-scripts. This study attempts to further our understanding of how and why family roles influence criminal justice decisions by examining models of sanctioning that (1) include a more comprehensive set of family role factors than previously examined; and (2) consider whether the effects of family roles on sentences vary by the sex and race of the defendant. The data are for a sample of convicted federal forgery offenders. The findings are complex but indicate the following: familial criteria play a role in the sanctioning of federal forgers; family roles vary in their influence on the sentencing of male and female offenders; judges differentiate defendants both on the basis of whether they occupy central family roles and how well they carry out their familial responsibilities; and, the impact of family role factors vary by the race of the defendant.