Judge Gender, Political Correctness and Sentences in Domestic Vi Olence Cases

How experts make decisions have been a question that interested economists and other social scientists. This project investigates the effect of judge gender on the sentencing of criminal cases related to domestic violence in Taiwan. Studying the determinants of judges’ decisions is an important question because judges are highly educated and well-trained individuals who make professional decisions that affect human society. In the early days, Taiwan's judicial system was dominated by male judges, and Taiwanese society was largely influenced by the tradition of male superiority. However, recent demands for gender equality across the globe have affected the judicial system in Taiwan, which makes the judiciary amended gender-equalizing bills. Given the recent economic literature shows that “political correctness” may affect individual decisions making, it is important to understand the effect of “political correctness” in combination of judge gender on the sentencing of criminal cases related to domestic violence.This project uses Taiwan courts' criminal cases to estimate the effect of judge gender on the sentencing of domestic violence between the earlier period with a male-dominated mainstream and a recent trend of “political correctness” of gender equality. This project has four objectives: (1) In the early period (probably before 2010), when the idea of gender equality was still not well-recognized, are the sentencings of female judges on domestic violence similar (or more lenient) to that of male judges? In addition, under the recent trend of gender equality, will “political correctness” drives female judges to make a heavier sentencing? Or whether male judges would increase their sentences in gender-related cases? (2) Whether the gender of the defendant attorneys influences sentencing across female and male judges. (3) This project applies “natural language processing” techniques on written judgments to analyze the differences in main evidences and reasons between female and male judges across different periods. (4) Whether sentencing in domestic violence cases is related to major social domestic violence incidents, sexist speech from politicians, or judicial “dinosaur” judgments.This project contributes to the literature in five aspects. (A) Different from the existing literature, this project explores sentencing behaviors of female judges in a climate of ``political correctness'' of gender equality. This project utilizes a substantial amount of legal records that enable us to conduct an in-depth analysis on my research question. (B) In addition to the impact of judge's gender on the sentencing of domestic violence cases, the project further explores the heterogeneous effects across the gender of attorney. (C) The project systematically links judges' testimonies and the reasoning across different periods to investigate what features of attorneys' defenses are favored by the male and female judges. (D) By reviewing reports from newspapers on domestic violence or gender-related news, this project examines whether sexist speech from politicians or judicial “dinosaur” judgments affects judges’ sentencing in domestic violence cases. (E) Given the effect of judge gender on sentencing is sparse in Taiwan, the findings of this projects are important to understand the role of judge gender in the process of promoting gender equality in Taiwan's justice.