A study on the analysis of sentencing factors in cases of homicide : Focusing on gender differences

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyse whether there are gender differences in sentencing factors by dividing homicide offenders into male and female groups. The independent variables in this study are the sentencing guideline factors (eg., type of motive, premeditation, brutality) and non-sentencing guideline factors (eg., use of a weapon, concurrent offences, previous convictions). The dependent variable in this study is the length of the sentence. The dataset consists of 232 cases of homicide convictions handed down by the Seoul District Courts between 2012 and 2023. The results show that the impact of sentencing factors varies significantly by gender of homicide offenders. It reveals that premeditation, brutality, previous convictions and concurrent offences have a significantly positive impact on the sentencing of male offenders. It is found that voluntary reporting and mental and physical incapacity have a significantly negative impact on the sentencing of female offenders. For both male and female offenders, sentencing is harsher when the type of motive is more serious, whereas the victim's provocation is found to have a significantly negative impact on the sentencing. Based on the findings, this study addresses the limitations and proposes policy recommendations to reduce the gender gap in the sentencing of homicide offenders.