What causes the delay
The second point helps explain historical crime series. Many well-known cases involved caring for sick people and children: there, death does not raise questions on its own and is seen as the outcome of an illness.
The fourth point stands out in analyses of miscarriages of justice. Testimony that does not match the expected image is more often dismissed as a memory error, and this applies not only to gender but also to age and social status.
The third tile points to a separate observation: under comparable circumstances, women receive milder punishments on average. Some of the difference is explained by the types of cases and the role played in the crime, but not all of it.
Why this is bad for everyone
Bias works both ways. As long as investigators cling to one image, they also judge men by it: an innocent man who resembles the expected profile comes under suspicion sooner and stays under investigation longer.
That leads to a general recommendation for investigations: build theories from the evidence, not from an image, and deliberately check the theory that contradicts your first impression. Formally, this is the requirement to consider alternatives.
History also shows the opposite bias. During witch hunts, women were the first to come under suspicion, and the same mechanism worked in the other direction: investigators looked for someone who fit the expected image, rather than someone the evidence pointed to.
Why is the version involving a woman investigated later?
Who else is harmed by this bias?
Sources
- Studies of investigations note that stereotypical images of criminals influence the order in which theories are checked and how testimony is assessed
- differences in sentence severity under comparable circumstances have been described, but they are explained by more than gender alone
Next in the “Women Criminals” series
2 articles in full on the site, 2 more in the app
