Is Chivalry Colour-Blind? Race-Class-Gender Articulation in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The recent multivariate analysis of sentencing reports and probation reports by Roger Hood makes the controversial claim that the ‘chivalry thesis’ that women are generally treated more favourably than men in the courts is applicable to both white women and black women. The present paper reviews Hood's claim against the background of the literature on chivalry to see if this historically race-specific cultural practice has now become colour-blind as Hood implies. The paper concludes by stating that Hood is mistaken on two major counts regarding the different problems that face black women and white women in court and the different ways that similar problems are experienced by people with variable race, class and gender relations.