Why female sex offenders receive lower sentences than their male counterparts?

Why female sex offenders receive lower sentences than their male counterparts?

Introduction

Some laws are created to protect the population from things that can be outside of their control. One area that seems to have several laws helping to govern a specific population in order to help protect society are laws regarding sex offenders. Many of the laws regarding sex offenders have been implemented based on the public's opinion and feelings regarding the related population, in the context. At times, these opinions and feelings may be based on facts regarding sex offenders, and at other times these opinions may be based on myths or hype around particular cases of sex offenders(Stalans, 2009). However, is some of the cases the fact can be reiterated that the laws which were created may not have necessarily be accurately protecting society and unjustly affecting a small portion of the society. Often times when the term sex offender is used, it is associated with the male gender, and people tend to assume that the person or persons being discussed are male. While this is typically the case, the phenomenon of sexual offending is not limited to the male gender, and there are females who do commit sexual offenses. This paper attempted to expand on previous researches in the framed notion.

Moreover, the methodology adopted tends to revolve the fact that public viewed male sex offenders in harsher terms than female sex offenders. For the purposes of the study, harsher terms were defined as high agreement with questions concerned with the level of substance abuse, abuse histories, mental disorders, and strict punishment for offenders. Turning the pages of history tends to guide us towards the fact that there have been instances in the criminal justice system where men and women have been treated differently. Some experts are of the view that different treatment of women tends to be based on different notions. One reason which the experts render is the presence of the tradition associated to treat men and women. More than traditions it has been associated to the presence of the infrastructure (Roberts, 2009). Sex differences in the criminal justice system for sex offenders are also related to the imprisonment rates. In the case of this paper the theory which tends to explain the existing differences between the sentencing of male and female sex offenders is identified as Black's theory of the behavior of law.

Discussion

Sexual offenses are not a male gender phenomenon, and some females, in fact, commit sex offenses against others. Although published research on female sex offenders was present before the 1980s, it was during the 1980s when larger, though still limited, amounts of research in this area emerged. Research regarding female sex offenders remains limited, however, mostly to lower prevalence rates of reported cases of female-perpetrated sexual abuse. The United States Department of Justice reported in 1999 that women account for 2% to 5% of all sexual offenses committed in the United States each ...