How Does Sexism Affect Women in Criminal Trials?

 Posted on September 30, 2026 in Criminal Law

Everyone who has been charged with a crime deserves to be treated fairly as their cases make their way through the criminal justice system. During a criminal trial, juries should be able to make decisions based on the facts surrounding what happened and the evidence related to an alleged offense. Unfortunately, many people face unfair treatment when prosecutors use tactics to try to make them appear untrustworthy based on details that have nothing to do with crimes that allegedly occurred. These include situations where women face sexist treatment during criminal trials.

Because of the risks of unfair and unjust treatment in criminal cases, legal representation by a skilled attorney is crucial for those who are facing criminal charges. A lawyer who has successfully defended clients in criminal trials will understand how to counter unfair tactics by prosecutors and how to develop defense strategies that will help a person avoid a conviction.

Report Demonstrates Sexism for Women Facing the Death Penalty

Recently, researchers from Cornell Law School published a paper in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law detailing the findings of a study in which they examined the transcripts from the trials of women who were sentenced to death in cases throughout the United States between 1990 and 2022. Women only make up 2 percent of the people on death row in the U.S., but an examination of their cases revealed that sexism played an outsized role in many trials.

According to the researchers, sexualized language or arguments played a role in 34 out of the 48 cases examined. In these cases, prosecutors made sexist arguments about defendants’ personal lives, including the clothing they wore, their hairstyles, their romantic relationships or extramarital affairs, and how they parented their children, even when these details had nothing to do with the alleged crimes in question. Women were often portrayed as inherently deceitful based on this information, and this was used to claim that they were willing to commit murder.

Many of the details in these cases involved issues that would not be raised in situations where men were on trial for similar offenses. In one case, a prosecutor displayed thong underwear that a defendant had worn and questioned witnesses about how many sexual partners she had had in the past. In another, a prosecutor highlighted the fact that a woman had left her home without wearing a bra after she had undergone breast augmentation surgery.

To make matters worse, nearly every woman included in the report had been the victim of physical or sexual violence. This violence was often downplayed or ignored, even in situations where women had acted in self-defense. In one case, a sex worker who had killed a former client was convicted after a prosecutor argued that her choice to engage in sex work showed that she was deceitful and that her claims of self-defense should not be believed.

The researchers who released this report have also looked into whether men face similar accusations. After performing research on death penalty cases in the same geographical areas as the women’s cases highlighted in the report, they have not been able to find any cases where men have been sexualized, where choices related to their appearance or clothing have been questioned, or where their sexual relationships with consenting partners have been examined.

While this study focused specifically on cases where women have been charged with murder and faced the death penalty, there are many other types of criminal cases where sexism may be a factor. Many women who are accused of violent crimes after defending themselves or responding to abuse struggle to be treated fairly, and their motives are likely to be called into question based on details related to their personal lives. This illustrates the importance of legal representation by a criminal defense attorney who can make sure a defendant’s rights are protected while challenging sexism by prosecutors.

Contact Our Connecticut Violent Crimes Defense Lawyers

At Woolf & Ross Law Firm, LLC, our lawyers can provide the defense needed for women or others who may face bias and unfair treatment during criminal cases. We will build successful defense strategies while fighting against any attempts to call a person’s character into question based on the details of their personal life. Contact our Hartford violent crimes defense attorneys at 860-290-8690 to set up a free consultation.