Sentencing Females Convicted of Sex Offenses: Examining Measures of Perceived Dangerousness and the Decision to Incarcerate

• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Author: Tusty Ten Bensel,Benjamin R. Gibbs
• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00938548211032708

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 1, January 2022, 58 –76.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211032708

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

58

SENTENCING FEMALES CONVICTED OF SEX

OFFENSES

Examining Measures of Perceived Dangerousness and

the Decision to Incarcerate

BENJAMIN R. GIBBS

Ball State University

TUSTY TEN BENSEL

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

From media attention to legislative actions, individuals convicted of sex offenses are often perceived as dangerous and a

threat to society. Previous research, however, has demonstrated that perceived dangerousness is gender-specific, often mini-

mizing culpability for women convicted of sex offenses. Consequently, previous research on sentencing outcomes of these

individuals have largely been male-only samples, leaving a gap in the literature as it pertains to females convicted of sex

offenses. The current study sought to fill this gap by examining the impact that those convicted, victims, and offense charac-

teristics had on sentencing outcomes for women convicted of sex offenses. We analyzed a sample of 262 females convicted

of a sex offense in a Southern state. The results demonstrated that official case characteristics, along with victim character-

istics, play an influential role in the judicial decision to impose an incarceration sentence.

Keywords: sex offender; sentencing; women offenders; incarceration; quantitative methods

Over the past two decades, the mass media has paid some attention to female sexual

offending (Grimm & Harp, 2011), which has primarily focused on female teachers.

Unfortunately, these accounts have only served to reinforce societal views of sexual scripts,

while undermining the true scope and harm of female sex offending (Denov, 2001, 2003;

Mellor & Deering, 2010) There have been a number of cumbersome laws enacted that

reflect societal perceptions of the threat and danger individuals convicted of sex offenses

pose to society (Berman, 2005; Sample & Bray, 2003); however, research has demonstrated

that this perceived dangerousness is gender-specific, which often minimizes or discounts

the existence of female sexual offending (Denov, 2001, 2003; Mellor & Deering, 2010).

The reality is that females account for approximately 7% to 12% of this population, although

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Benjamin R. Gibbs,

Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Ball State University, North Quad, Suite

278, Muncie, IN 47306; e-mail: brgibbs@bsu.edu.

1032708CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211032708Criminal Justice and BehaviorGibbs, ten Bensel / Sentencing Females Convicted of Sex Offenses

research-article2021

Gibbs, ten Bensel / SENTENCING FEMALES CONVICTED OF SEX OFFENSES 59

scholars argue the true estimates of female sex offending are likely to be much higher than

official statistics (Cortoni et al., 2017). This suggests that there is a greater need to under-

stand sexual offending by females and the manner in which professionals respond to females

convicted of sex offenses.

Research on women convicted of sex offenses has been limited but has grown over the

past few decades. Scholars have explored professional perceptions (Denov, 2001; Mellor &

Deering, 2010), typologies (Steely & ten Bensel, 2020; Vandiver & Kercher, 2004), com-

parative studies between types of female offenders (ten Bensel, Gibbs, & Burkey, 2019;

Vandiver, 2006), and offending severity (ten Bensel, Gibbs, & Raptopoulus, 2019). One

notably deficient area of scholarship is in the sentencing of these females (Darling et al.,

2018). Much of the existing sentencing literature excluded females from samples (Amirault

& Beauregard, 2014; Patrick & Marsh, 2011), while examining the effects that offense

characteristics, victim characteristics, and the victim–offender relationship have on judicial

sentencing decisions (Levesque, 2000; Patrick & Marsh, 2011). Previous studies that

included females were comparative in nature without focusing on specific offense charac-

teristics that may be unique to female sexual offending (Embry & Lyons, 2012; Hassett-

Walker et al., 2014). Overall, research has indicated women convicted of sex offenses are

sentenced more leniently than males, suggesting that judges view them as less dangerous

and less of a threat to the community than their male counterparts (Shields & Cochran,

2020; Thompson et al., 2020). A gap in the literature, however, remains as researchers have

yet to isolate specific offense characteristics that may be indicators of offense severity war-

ranting harsher criminal sentences for these women.

To our knowledge, only one study has solely focused on the sentencing of females con-

victed of sex offenses (Darling et al., 2018). Although this study was insightful, we have

expanded on this study by examining a larger sample of females with greater analytical

rigor. Moreover, we included key offense and victim characteristics in our study to examine

specific influences on judicial sentencing decisions and the manner in which judges per-

ceive dangerousness among these women. We conducted a probit regression to understand

the effects offender, victim, and offense characteristics have on the severity of sentencing

sanctions among females convicted of a sex offense in a southern state (n = 262). The

examination of these characteristics goes beyond using official charges (Embry & Lyons,

2012) as we accounted for several case characteristics (i.e., consensual nature of the offense,

offender–victim relationship) to capture the true nature of offenses that can be lost in plea

bargains (Levesque, 2000). Our sample included females who were convicted and assessed

in a southern state between 1996 and 2018, which captured over two decades of sentencing

data. The results of this study will provide a better understanding on how females who com-

mitted sexual crimes are sanctioned and the manner in which judges perceive the danger

presented by this population. In the following section, we provided a discussion on the focal

concerns perspective, which is the guiding theoretical perspective for this study. In addition,

we reviewed research on judicial decision-making, overall sentencing patterns, and women

who have been convicted of sex offenses.

BACKGROUND

The focal concerns perspective posits that judges have three primary concerns when

sentencing defendants—blameworthiness, protection of the community, and practical