NCJ Number
177798
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 10 Issue: 3 Dated: 1999 Pages: 57-93
Date Published
1999
Length
37 pages
Annotation
Executions of females between 1632 and 1997 are described and analyzed from a socio-historical perspective.
Abstract
The analysis focused on the race, offense, age, and occupation of executed female inmates and the date, method, place, jurisdiction, and region of female executions. Historical analysis of these data suggested that female executions increased when women challenged the social, political, and economic interests of the male dominant group. White female executions were higher than black female executions in the colonial period, when white females challenged the male-dominated leadership of newly established colonial settlements aimed to maintain social, political, and economic controls. Black female executions increased under the extreme controls imposed on protecting institutional slavery and when black females challenged their subordinate status as slaves. Female executions decreased in the immediate postbellum period, when social relations were relatively positive, but increased in later decades when social relations became chaotic and heavily strained. Findings revealed limited evidence supporting the notion that female prisoners in the modern era have received preferential treatment in the imposition of capital punishment. Tables, notes, and 142 references (Author abstract modified)