Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Is it bad for sentencing jurisprudence that women are still badly under-represented on the bench?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is prompted by the report in this post at The BLT, which details the following statistics (that I find quite depressing): Women currently make up 22% of all federal judges, a new study has found, and 26% of state-level judges. The study by the University at Albany-SUNY's Center for Women in Government and Civil Society found that only two states ? New Jersey and Connecticut ? had achieved a "critical mass" of 33% women among the state's federal judgeships.  As for state judges, eight states have hit the one-third women mark, but 13 are below 20%. The 33% threshold is ?important because it is the point where women become a critical mass and where their number is large enough to induce change in the normative conception of leadership,? said center director Dina Refki in a statement...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 29, 2010 (boomark / email).