On Thursday, November 30th, I have attended the New England Study Group seminar hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Research Department. Kyung Park from Wellesley College presented his research with the title "Comparing Apples to Oranges: Differences in Women's and Men's Incarceration and Sentencing Outcomes".
Using detailed administrative records, Kyung finds that, on average, women receive lighter sentences in comparison with men along both extensive and intensive margins. Using parametric and semi-parametric decomposition methods, roughly 30% of the gender differences in incarceration cannot be explained by the observed criminal characteristics of offense and offender. He also finds evidence of considerable heterogeneity across judges in their treatment of female and male offenders. There is little evidence, however, that tastes for gender discrimination are driving the mean gender disparity or the variance in treatment between judges.
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