Sex ratios of publicly authorized punishment have varied widely across history. Much evidence indicates that criminal justice systems have deeply entrenched gender animus against men. During wartime, military service has substituted for criminal punishment in disposing of men. Substitution between military service and punishment suggests that public bias toward sacrificing men’s lives isn’t just a response to military emergencies. Sacrificing men in military service and in punishment are alternate outcomes of the same discursive process. Anti-men gender bias in public discourse is pervasive and largely ignored.
Sex ratio in Punishment: War and Peace in Early 19th-Century England & Wales
| military situation | year begin | year end | executed men | executed women | executed men per woman | transported men | transported women | transported men per woman |
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| pre Napoleonic Wars | 1788 | 1792 | 577 | 18 | 32.1 | 3,334 | 594 | 5.6 |
| Napoleonic Wars, pt. 1 | 1793 | 1801 | 802 | 42 | 19.1 | 1490 | 588 | 2.5 |
| Peace of Amiens | 1802 | 1802 | 89 | 3 | 29.5 | 516 | 128 | 4.0 |
| Napoleonic Wars, pt. 2 | 1803 | 1815 | 884 | 44 | 20.1 | 3,963 | 1,212 | 3.3 |
| post Napoleonic Wars | 1816 | 1822 | 703 | 30 | 23.4 | 12,707 | 663 | 19.2 |
| Source: punishment prevalence yearly by sex in England & Wales from 1715. Note: good yearly data on prisoners by sex aren't available for England & Wales before 1836. |
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Sex Ratio in Punishment: War and Peace in 20th-century England & Wales
| military situation | year begin | year end | men in prison | women in prison | sex ratio in prison |
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| pre World War I | 1909 | 1913 | 17,512 | 2,567 | 6.8 |
| World War I | 1915 | 1918 | 8,235 | 1,822 | 4.5 |
| post World War I | 1919 | 1923 | 9,863 | 1,292 | 7.6 |
| pre World War II | 1932 | 1938 | 10,925 | 732 | 14.9 |
| World War II | 1939 | 1945 | 10,720 | 1,158 | 9.3 |
| post WWII | 1946 | 1952 | 18,653 | 1,124 | 16.6 |
| Source: punishment prevalence yearly by sex in England & Wales from 1715. |
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Sex Ratio in Punishment: War and Peace in 20th-Century U.S.
| military situation | year begin | year end | executed men | executed women | executed men per woman | men in prison | women in prison | sex ratio in prison |
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| pre World War II | 1932 | 1938 | 1,196 | 8 | 149.5 | 243,333 | 11,732 | 20.7 |
| World War II | 1939 | 1945 | 927 | 8 | 115.9 | 265,695 | 13,959 | 19.0 |
| post WWII | 1946 | 1952 | 783 | 5 | 156.6 | 257,320 | 13,311 | 19.3 |
| Source: Punishment prevalence yearly by sex in the U.S. from 1880. |
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