Gender Norms in Portuguese College Students’ Judgments in Familial Homicides

Abstract

The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included 303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for intervention against the punitive tendency of this population.

The Effect of Sex and Perpetrator–Victim Relationship on Perceptions of Domestic Homicide

“…A common notion is the categorization of offenders as either “mad” or “bad” (Burns, 1992). Within this dichotomy, female violent behavior is often viewed as a consequence of mental illness, whereas male violence is viewed as malicious (Burns, 1992; Saavedra et al, 2017). Perceptions of this type have legal relevance, as many countries allow an insanity defense or have separate legal trajectories for offenders found mentally ill and for those considered criminally accountable.…”

“…retrospectively investigating real-life legal cases of IPV, showing that men are judged more harshly and punished more severely for violent offenses than are women (Ahola et al, 2009;Armstrong, 1999;Curry, Lee, & Rodriguez, 2004;Flynn, Abel, While, Mehta, & Shaw, 2011;Jeffries, Fletcher, & Newbold, 2003;Saavedra, Cameira, Rebelo, & Sebastião, 2017;Sorenson & Taylor, 2005). Studies have, for example, shown that male perpetrators of domestic homicide are assigned longer prison sentences than female perpetrators in experimental mock jury settings (Ahola et al, 2009;Saavedra et al, 2017). However, there are also studies suggesting that men and women receive equal sentencing by mock jurors (Jurik & Silverstein, 2001;Russell & Kraus, 2016).…”

The Effect of Sex and Perpetrator-Victim Relationship on Perceptions of Domestic Homicide

“…Contrary to predictions, the sex of the perpetrator did not affect the severity of the punishment recommended by the participants. Previous research in mock crime settings has found that male offenders receive harsher punishments in the form of longer prison sentences than female homicide offenders (Ahola et al, 2009;Saavedra et al, 2017). A distinction between previous studies and the present one is that the former ones included cases where a person killed his or her romantic partner, whereas here, there were two victims of whom at least one was a child.…”

“…This has been seen in research on mock juror's evaluations of fictive crimes, as well as in studies retrospectively investigating real-life legal cases of IPV, showing that men are judged more PERCEPTIONS OF DOMESTIC HOMICIDE 2 harshly and punished more severely for violent offences than are women (Ahola et al, 2009;Armstrong, 1999;Curry, Lee, & Rodriguez, 2004;Flynn, Abel, While, Mehta, & Shaw, 2011;Jeffries, Fletcher, & Newbold, 2003;Saavedra, Cameira, Rebelo, & Sebastião, 2017;Sorenson & Taylor, 2005). Studies have, for example, shown that male perpetrators of domestic homicide are assigned longer prison sentences than female perpetrators in experimental mock-crime settings (Ahola et al, 2009;Saavedra et al, 2017). On the other hand, there are also studies that suggest that men and women receive equal sentencing by mock jurors (Jurik & Silverstein, 2001;Russell & Kraus, 2016).…”

Deconstructing Idealized Motherhood: The Extreme Case of Neonaticidal Women

“…Indeed, these cases reveal that women who have always adhered to the "correct" standards of motherhood may violate these standards when constrained by their social or economic context. Thus, the "good" or "bad" mother identities-"once a good mother, always a good mother" (e.g., Saavedra, Cameira, Rebelo, & Sebastião, 2017)-are not fixed, rather they strongly depend on their contextual backgrounds and the discourses on motherhood and abortion that circulate in society. Instead of assuming these criminal women exhibit essentialist characteristics (which results in the profiling of neonaticidal women), this crime should be framed by a social constructionist perspective of motherhood.…”