Gender Differences in Preferences For Criminal Justice Error Types: An Experiment

30 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2021 Last revised: 6 Dec 2021

See all articles by Stanton Hudja

Stanton Hudja

University of Toronto, Department of Economics, Students

Jason Ralston

Whitman College

Siyu Wang

Wichita State University - W. Frank Barton School of Business - Department of Economics

Jason Anthony Aimone

Baylor University - Department of Economics

Lucas Rentschler

Utah State University - Department of Economics and Finance

Charles M. North

Baylor University Department of Economics

Date Written: August 31, 2021

Abstract

This paper extends Givati (2019) by conducting a laboratory experiment to investigate the gender differences of criminal justice error types. In particular, we ask whether women care less about reducing Type I error than men when making explicit decisions about criminal justice errors. In our experiment, subjects can use points to reduce the prevalence of Type I and Type II error in two distinct criminal justice environments: (i) a Population Task where subjects’ decisions reflect their Type I and Type II error preferences for a conceptual population of accused defendants, and (ii) a Consequential Task where subjects’ decisions reflect their error preferences toward an actual defendant. Similar to the social survey data in Givati (2019), in a population environment, we find that men are more willing to reduce Type I error than women. Surprisingly, in our consequential environment, we find that men and women behave similarly.

Keywords: Type I Error, Type II Error, Gender Differences, Criminal Justice, Laboratory Experiments

JEL Classification: C91, D91

Suggested Citation

Hudja, Stanton and Ralston, Jason and Wang, Siyu and Aimone, Jason Anthony and Rentschler, Lucas and North, Charles M., Gender Differences in Preferences For Criminal Justice Error Types: An Experiment (August 31, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3915049 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3915049

Stanton Hudja (Contact Author)

University of Toronto, Department of Economics, Students ( email )

150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

Jason Ralston

Whitman College ( email )

P.O. Box 98003
Walla Walla, WA 99362
United States

Siyu Wang

Wichita State University - W. Frank Barton School of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

Wichita, KS 67260-0078
United States

Jason Anthony Aimone

Baylor University - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 98003
Waco, TX 76798-8003
United States

Lucas Rentschler

Utah State University - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Logan, UT 84322-1400
United States

Charles M. North

Baylor University Department of Economics ( email )

One Bear Place # 98003
Waco, TX 76798-8003
United States

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