A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the Relationship between Victim Sex and Capital Juror Decision-Making in North Carolina
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2015
Keywords
Victim sex, Death penalty, Capital punishment, Propensity score matching
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.01.007
Abstract
A small body of prior research has examined the impact of victim sex on jury death penalty decision-making and the majority of this research has demonstrated some evidence of a “female victim effect” such that cases involving a female victim are more likely to receive the death penalty than similarly situated cases with a male victim. However, within this line of research studies have suggested that victim sex may work in conjunction with other case characteristics. In order to further explore this phenomenon, the current study examines a near-population of death penalty cases from North Carolina (n = 1069) from 1977–2009 using propensity score matching. Results demonstrate that once cases are matched on more than 50 legal and extralegal case characteristics, there is no statistically significant or substantive link between victim sex and death penalty decision-making. Findings suggest that it is concrete differences in the legal and extralegal factors observed in cases with female victims compared to male victims that shape jury death sentence decisions rather than a direct effect of victim sex (before matching: OR = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.20–1.95; p < .001/after matching: OR = 0.90; 95% CI = 0.66–1.24; p = .52). Study limitations and implications are also discussed.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Social Science Research, v. 52, p. 47-58
Scholar Commons Citation
Jennings, Wesley G.; Richards, Tara N.; Smith, M. Dwayne; Bjerregaard, Beth E.; and Fogel, Sondra J., "A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the Relationship between Victim Sex and Capital Juror Decision-Making in North Carolina" (2015). Social Work Faculty Publications. 131.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/sok_facpub/131
