A 2001 University of Georgia study found substantial sentencing discrimination against men "after controlling for extensive criminological, demographic, and socioeconomic variables".
[6] In 2012 Sonja B. Starr from University of Michigan Law School found that, controlling for the crime, "men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do," and "[w]omen are…twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted", also based on data from US federal court cases.
[7][8] Natalie Goulette and her colleagues found 2014 support for the “evil woman” theory, which suggests that chivalry is reserved for certain groups of women who appear to be docile and in need of protection.
[15] A 2020 study shows that women receive 33% (15 days) shorter prison sentences than men, even when controlling for all observable characteristics – including a very precise description of the crime.
[16] A 2001 University of Georgia study found substantial sentencing racism against African Americans "after controlling for extensive criminological, demographic, and socioeconomic variables".
The Florida Department of Corrections gave statistics of those prisoners who received probation or community control in the period 1990–1999.
In 2016, Mirko Bagaric argued that African-Americans and Indigenous Australians should receive a sentencing discount in all but the most serious of crimes, in part to offset unacknowledged biases to the opposite effect, while women should "be treated more leniently when they commit the same crime as a man" - in this case, he did not make any exception for serious offending.
[23] Some people argue that giving women lighter sentences is infantilizing, based on stereotyping, and incompatible with gender equality.