Societal Expectations Of Women

In addition to the factors that tend to affect more women, there are societal restrictions and pressures that add to the wrongful convictions. The previously mentioned amicus curiae brief also argued this idea saying “wrongfully convicted women not only are punished for crimes they did not commit, but also are vilified in the court of public opinion for violating societal expectations based on their gender” and it argues that “society unfairly deems female suspects guilty” with an “automatic condemnation” ( ). What contributes to this are societal expectations of women as mothers or caretakers, men that use their higher status in interrogation rooms by playing up on psychological disadvantages, and blatant sexist stereotypes. Alice H. Eagly,
According to legal analyses, women’s roles as caretakers for families add an expectation for selflessness and many crime narratives put the women “directly at odds with the ideal of motherhood,” which allows certain stereotypes and judgments to be hastily made without specific facts ( ). Defense attorneys have argued many times that for their clients, the proposed motive of the crime was “fabricated” based on sexist ideas ( ). Studies have shown that expectations of females to be the caretaking and passive sex have had multiple effects on the outcomes of trials. Most of these ideas come to light when women become suspects because they were mothers or played a caregiving role in the victim’s life ( ). It is not a revolutionary idea that violence by someone of any gender is dangerous and destructive, but when done by men, it is less shocking. Most attorneys would not make the argument that the gender of the defendant does not have an immediate effect on the strategy to prosecute or defend. Prosecutors have been known to on a woman’s “failure to behave according to societal expectations, rather than just focusing on the elements of the alleged crime” ( ). Legal analysts, especially ones studying law and feminism have said that convictions are one way that the government and society “establishes the limits of acceptable behavior and asserts its control over those who violate societal norms” ( ). There a a few theories that analysts have used to describe the actions taken in court with these types of cases. One theory is called the “chivalry theory” and the other is called the “evil woman” theory. For the chivalry theory, the idea of women as weaker can translate into less harsher punishments for their crime” ( ). This has been used frequently to explain why a lower proportion of women receive the death penalty, with some