Gender Disparities in Sentence Discourses for Parental Figures Convicted of Severe Violence Against Minors in Their Care in Portugal
-
Ispa - Instituto Universitário
Portugal -
Universidad de Cádiz Spain
-
William James Center for Research; Ispa - Instituto Universitário Portugal
Abstract
This study aimed to scrutinize court discourses in cases of severe violence by parental figures against minors. Studies on gender differences in judicial settings have revealed that women may be either protected or demonized, as framed by the chivalry hypothesis, familial paternalism, and the double deviance/evil woman hypothesis. This study analyzed 66 judicial sentences involving parental figures (i.e., fathers/stepfathers and mothers/stepmothers) who committed extreme violence against minors. Using Braun and Clarke’s (2012) thematic analysis, we found three main themes: Description of the Act, Courts' Justifications, and Aggravating Factors. Findings revealed that maternal figures received more mentions of mitigating circumstances, psychological state, and motivations for committing their crime, but were more harshly punished and criticized, supporting the evil woman hypothesis. In a field lacking ample data, this study offers crucial findings that warrant discussion for contextualizing and guiding future research.
Except where otherwise noted, content in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Downloads
Author Biographies
João Cabral has a bachelor's degree in psychology (ISCTE, 2021) and a master's degree in Forensic Psychology (ISPA, 2023). His dissertation was about gender disparities in sentence discourses of parental figures convicted of severe violence against minors in their care in Portugal. He also did a curricular internship in Centro Educativo Navarro de Paiva. His current study interests are gender differences in criminality, individualized justice and legal discourse.
María del Mar Martín Aragón is a graduate in Law and Criminology and an expert in criminality and public security. She holds a Master's degree in Criminality and Public Security, as well as an International Mention PhD (Hons. Cum Laude) from the Universidad de Cádiz. She teaches subjects focused on gender, such as “Specific Criminality Patterns: Gender Issues” within the Criminology degree program. She participated in a research project on gender titled "Equality and Criminal Law: Gender and Nationality as Primary Discrimination Factors (DER 2010-19781)." As part of this project, she published a book chapter titled “Roma Women Imprisoned: Results from a Sample in the Prisons of Alcalá de Guadaira and Puerto III.” Her research interests include gender, imprisoned women, gender and criminality, crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, and crimes against the environment. She has published works on topics such as gender and prisons, human rights and imprisonment, crimes against the environment, ecocide, sentencing, and victimization.
Andreia de Castro Rodrigues is an Assistant Professor and Director of the master’s in forensic psychology at Ispa – Instituto Universitário and a Researcher at William James Center for Research (Lisbon, Portugal). She developed her post-doc research and her PhD in Psychology of Justice, respectively in the area of users’ perceptions and effectiveness of penal sanctions and sentencing. Her research interests are gender and crime, the criminal justice system, sentencing, penalties effectiveness and prison sentences in particular. She has also participated in several funded scientific research projects, being the PI of the project ‘Women Behind Bars’ (SR23-00172), funded by La Caixa Foundation. She has more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and several chapters and books. She is a member of the European Criminology Society, in four working groups: 'ESC Working Group on Sentencing & Penal Decision-Making’, ‘Working Group on Qualitative Research Methodologies and Epistemologies, ‘ESC Working Group on Prison Life and the Effects of Imprisonment’, and ‘ESC Gender, Crime and Justice Working Group’.