Male and Female Parole Decisions: Is Paying Your Dues or Saying You're Sorry More Important?

Gendered views on parole: exploring how emotion and emotion management help to explain gender differences in the Australian public’s views on parole

“…Conversely, Maruna and King (2004) reported that British men were significantly less supportive than British women of the use of probation, a communitybased order that, like parole, involves the supervision of offenders in the community. Other studies, though, have found no gender differences in public support for parole (O'Hear and Wheelock, 2016) or in mock parole board decisions (Estrada-Reynolds, Schweitzer, Nuñez, & Culhane, 2016a). While the findings of these studies are mixed, they point to a possible gender gap in public support for parole in the United States and United Kingdom.…”

“…Indeed, most interviewees (all but four) said they would grant parole to the offender described in the vignette. This was somewhat expected, given research showing that individuals are less punitive both when responding to a parole vignette (Cumberland & Zamble, 1992) and when the offender is a drug trafficker (Estrada-Reynolds et al, 2016a). Further, research from the Philippines,…”

“…Because previous research has indicated people will be less punitive when asked to make a parole decision for a specific offender than when they are asked to respond to global-style questions about their support for parole (Cumberland & Zamble, 1992), it was anticipated that many participants would decide to grant parole for this case. Further, recent research has shown that the public hold more positive views toward drug trafficking offenders than for other offender types (namely, armed robbers and arsonists) (Estrada-Reynolds et al, 2016a). It may be the case, then, that members of the public would tend to grant parole to this type of offender at high rates.…”

“…A dummy variable was used to represent gender, where 0 = male and 1 = female. In terms of the relationship between gender and parole attitudes, it is expected that female respondents may hold less supportive views toward parole than male respondents (Estrada-Reynolds et al, 2016a;Haghighi & Lopez, 1998;O'Hear & Wheelock, 2015).…”

“…Further, while the qualitative phase of this study used a vignette involving a drug offender who was applying for parole, previous research has shown that members of the public are more likely to grant parole for this type of offender than for others, including those convicted of arson or armed robbery (Estrada-Reynolds et al, 2016a). Future research should, therefore, continue to explore public views on the appropriateness of parole for different types of offenders, including those convicted of violent, sexual and property offences.…”