Without Fear but Plenty of Favour
Young woman who drove drunk and kicked a police officer walks from court with clean slate
WTF?!
Some cases of compassion towards female offenders might be supported if, and only if, male offenders would have the same chance of being shown compassion, but of course that’s not the case. However, it’s difficult under any circumstances to support this female offender receiving no punishment, not even a period of disqualification from driving. The offending was just too serious.
Note that the offender is referred to in the headline as ‘Young woman…’, but it turns out she was in her 20’s. Yes well we suppose that’s young for an adult but actually she was an adult and had been subject to adult legal consequences for several years. If exactly the same offences had been committed by a man in his 20’s the headline would almost certainly have simply referred to him as ‘Man…’. The infantilization of women when they do wrong is designed to elicit sympathy and caring towards them. In one breath women want to be taken seriously as adults then in the other breath they want to be treated as children who have little agency or responsibility for their behaviour. This whole article, written by a female, was oriented towards making this ridiculously lenient treatment seem justified.
Note also the woman’s self-centred focus and minimization of her behaviour. She was so embarrassed and nervous to be in Court. She couldn’t describe how it made her feel to think if she had hit someone. “It was so silly, but I was distressed.” “I’ve had this slip up and I’ve made this mistake”. Yeah, a bit of a slip up you silly billy, there, there.
Note also that she blames some unidentified man who she claimed assaulted her but this actually had amounted only to ‘unwanted attention’. Yeah, always blame some man.
The even younger man in this recent case was never referred to as a ‘young man’. Although he neither resisted nor assaulted police and his alcohol level was less the above woman’s, no way he was going to be discharged without conviction. Further, unlike the woman he didn’t deserve name suppression. Par for the course.
“The sparkling future held by the young woman in the dock was left almost in tatters after just one night out drinking.”
There’s lots of emotion, in that sentence.
Because the conviction, is made dramatic compared to reality.
At worst, she can’t get driving jobs.
And the accusation or conviction, has no real punishment.
Certainly not, in this case.
A drink driving record, how exactly does it harm a person.
Men on the other hand, get those punishments.
Even before court, the punishments start.
It’s hard to imagine a young male, escaping a conviction.
Or the protection order, stopping his employment.
The sex crime allegations, even more severe.
They can literally force, the person into not working.
All that, even before a court case.
The conviction, making those things permanent.
The crown justified, trying to prevent crime.
The males life, actually left in tatters.
The young male, could have the same outcome.
The crown searching files, could probably find one.
Claiming then, there is no gender bias.
The data would interesting, offending vs arrest rates vs conviction rates.
Since the police target boys, pulling boys over as policy.
Chasing boy racers, and pulling over types of cars.
Certainly they are not out, targeting the solo mother.
Staking out schools, for the alcoholic mums.
You can expect bias data, due to bias policy.
Comment by DJ Ward — Sat 25th February 2023 @ 11:37 am
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742
The above link clearly shows men are sentence to longer prison terms than women for the same crime. So you are not imagining it.
What I think happened here is Judge David Ruth has on that day done what most men do. He has seen a woman in a difficult situation and said I can help. It is our natural instinct to help a woman in distress.
This woman still has criminal history but no conviction history. She has criminal history because you must plead guilty to get it. Same with a discharge without conviction. You must plead guilty to get that too.
Hats off to her lawyer who presented her case. He/she made her out to be a victim. Unwanted attention and had to get away from it, distressed had a bright future, wasn’t her normal character. All the right words, very sorry, family support, her age, her promise to not end up in court again.
Like it or not, the Judge did the right thing in accordance with sentencing rules.
If you have a conviction, the clean slate hides certain types of convictions. But not to all employers. See link below.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/criminal-records/clean-slate/
It would be unusual to get through your whole life without having a car accident, some heated moment. You can check your criminal record here.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/criminal-records
Comment by Lukenz — Mon 27th February 2023 @ 8:08 am
From the research, so it’s not guessing figures.
The research, actually has a large sample size.
“treatment as male is associated with a 63% average increase in sentence”
So that’s a claim, but there’s reasons for the figure.
How much can be explained, how much can’t be explained.
“the gender gap in sentences is mostly driven by decisions earlier in the justice process”
That’s from start to finish, from not even charging onwards.
Actually that’s the studies flaw, not charged is not studied.
What the police ask for, is statistically less for the same crime.
Then it’s the judges turn, they to give lighter sentences.
“Sarnikar et al. (2007) find about a 30% unexplained gender gap in sentence length, as did a prominent recent U.S. Sentencing Commission (2010) study”
So that’s more reliable, good reasons are considered.
“ Freiburger (2010) found that mentioning childcare reduced judges’ probability of recommending prison, but mentioning financial support for children did not.”
Certainly, men and women are not the same.
Certainly, they are not treated the same.
If this was done to women, there would be outrage.
Comment by DJ Ward — Mon 27th February 2023 @ 9:43 pm