Poster #60 - Gendered Sentencing Disparities in Illinois Child Maltreatment Cases (2018-2025).

• In Event: Poster Session I (posters 1 - 79)

Abstract

Failure to protect legislation is meant to prosecute abusers; however, the non-offending caregiver can be held legally liable for not protecting the child. While these laws are intended to be gender neutral, research demonstrates that females are disproportionately affected in child maltreatment cases. Most existing literature has focused on domestic violence cases, and little research has been conducted on gender disparities. This study will conduct a time-series analysis of the Illinois Department of Corrections Prison Admission Data Sets from 2018 to 2025, examining gender disparities in sentencing of child maltreatment cases over 8 years, to see if there are fluctuations in law changes. The study strives to answer: Are there gender differences in the length of sentences for child maltreatment cases in Illinois? How has sentencing length changed from 2018 to 2025? We hypothesize that gender is associated with sentence length in child maltreatment cases, specifically that women will receive longer sentences than men in child maltreatment cases. Through a systematic review of Illinois' failure-to-protect legislation to account for changes over the study period.

Authors

• Natalie Kay Burmann, DePaul University

• Baylee Allen-Flores, DePaul University