Women vs. men: Which judges are tougher on criminals?

Do women on the bench make a difference? Do women judges judge differently than men?

Opinions — and research — is exceedingly mixed.

Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, often was quoted as saying that a wise female judge will come to the same conclusion as a wise male judge.

But Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg offered a forceful opposing view in 2009 in a case involving a 13-year-old girl who had been strip-searched at school by the authorities on suspicion she was hiding over-the-counter ibuprofen pills.

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"They have never been a 13-year-old girl,” Justice Ginsburg said of her eight male colleagues, several of whom had suggested during oral argument that they were not troubled by the search.

"It's a very sensitive age for a girl," Ginsburg later told USA Today in a 2009 interview.

Early studies of women on trial courts, including one conducted by researchers at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, found female judges tend to impose harsher sentences in criminal cases than their male counterparts.

A 1999 study of women judges in Pennsylvania found they were 10 percent more likely to incarcerate and to impose prison terms about 5 months longer.

But Brian Frederick, chair of the political science department at Bridgewater State University near Boston, said that has changed as women no longer feel they have to prove themselves on the bench, and the tough-on-crime philosophy has faded.

A more recent study of 600,000 federal criminal cases found women judges impose sentences that are about 1.7 months shorter than men.

Female judges also have been found to be slightly more likely to find for plaintiffs in sex-discrimination cases and those involving gay rights, according to other research.

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Frederick said adding women to the bench increases the "legitimacy of the judiciary" because women litigants believe their interests will be considered more fairly.

Laura Moyer, a political science professor at the University of Louisville who has studied judicial elections, said women judges are more likely to make their courtrooms "more welcoming and equitable for everyone."

"They understand what it's like to be a woman in a setting that is male-dominated," she said.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.  Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/andreww