Lady Justice: the impact of female judges on jury trial verdicts in North Carolina
Lady Justice: the impact of female judges on jury trial verdicts in North Carolina
This study evaluates the impact of judges’ gender on jury trial outcomes in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The identification strategy is based on conditional random assignment of judges to cases. Specifically, I take advantage of the compulsory judges’ rotation imposed by the North Carolina Constitution. The results indicate that the presence of a female judge increases of 9.64–13.50 percentage points the probability of having at least one guilty verdict from the jury and of 9.5%–13.45% increase in the proportion of guilty verdicts expressed by the jury. Additionally, I perform a series of robustness and heterogeneity checks. I also investigate the potential mechanisms driving the results, exploring the influence of the jury selection process and women’s attitudes toward the courts and sentencing.
Gender, Judge, Trials behaviours
Foresta, Alessandra
aaf8f667-e9bb-410d-bedc-da9bd6fff3bc
3 June 2025
Foresta, Alessandra
aaf8f667-e9bb-410d-bedc-da9bd6fff3bc
Foresta, Alessandra
(2025)
Lady Justice: the impact of female judges on jury trial verdicts in North Carolina.
European Journal of Political Economy, 88, [102678].
(doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2025.102678).
Abstract
This study evaluates the impact of judges’ gender on jury trial outcomes in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The identification strategy is based on conditional random assignment of judges to cases. Specifically, I take advantage of the compulsory judges’ rotation imposed by the North Carolina Constitution. The results indicate that the presence of a female judge increases of 9.64–13.50 percentage points the probability of having at least one guilty verdict from the jury and of 9.5%–13.45% increase in the proportion of guilty verdicts expressed by the jury. Additionally, I perform a series of robustness and heterogeneity checks. I also investigate the potential mechanisms driving the results, exploring the influence of the jury selection process and women’s attitudes toward the courts and sentencing.
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 April 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 May 2025
Published date: 3 June 2025
Keywords:
Gender, Judge, Trials behaviours
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Local EPrints ID: 503338
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503338
ISSN: 1873-5703
PURE UUID: 5a5a9292-358b-42df-a4fe-7915b31f384d
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Date deposited: 29 Jul 2025 16:47
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:38
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Author:
Alessandra Foresta
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