RT Article
T1 Gendered Justice in China: Victim–Offender Mediation as the “Different Voice” of Female Judges
JF International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
VO 65
IS 4
SP 346
OP 372
A1 Wei, Shuai
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1750441276
AB Attempts to uncover the “different voice” of female judges through testing the statistical significance of judges’ gender in decision making have offered inconsistent results. Meanwhile, a proliferation of research suggests that such “voice” might be detected through qualitative analysis. Existing findings indicate that when female judges have discretionary power regarding case management, they will typically foster a process of settlement. Based on this information, I conducted eight months of fieldwork in China and observed 68 victim-offender mediations in four district courts. I found that the criminal division is widely perceived as a masculine setting, and female judges are accustomed to employing mediation as a preferred dispute resolution method to facilitate reconciliation between the two parties and seek civil compensation for victims. Such judicial behavior is a result of propaganda from the Supreme People’s Court and a reflection of female judges’ life and work experience. By contrast, a neglect of mediation among male judges can be identified in the same workplace. The belief that mediation is feminine and time-consuming contributes to this neglect. In addition, rape lawsuits are an exception for mediation. This explorative research not only represents one of the first efforts to reveal a “different voice” in the Chinese criminal justice system but points out a direction of research for studying the judicial behaviors of female judges worldwide.
K1 Gender
K1 Judges
K1 Propaganda
K1 Victim–offender mediation
DO 10.1177/0306624X20936202