Gendered Bail?: Analyzing Bail Outcomes from an Ontario Courthouse by Rachel Schumann A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Rachel Schumann, May, 2013 ABSTRACT GENDERED BAIL?: ANALYZING BAIL OUTCOMES FROM AN ONTARIO COURTHOUSE Rachel Schumann Advisor: University of Guelph, 2013 Dr. Carolyn Yule The relationship between gender and bail is an important yet understudied area of research. Studies that have found a relationship between gender and bail generally overlook important differences that shape how men and women enter into crime and the types of conditions imposed on their recognisances. This study utilizes 115 bail cases from the Provincial Courthouse in Kitchener, ON to examine the effect of accused gender on bail outcome. Results show that accused gender did influence decisions to grant or deny bail. While almost all accused persons required a surety and/or bail conditions to be released, the regression analysis suggests that women were more likely to be released compared to men. Based on the deep sample exploratory analysis, gender differences emerged around issues of mental health and drug use. Theoretical and policy implications from this study are discussed as are avenues for future research. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Carolyn Yule for everything that you have done during the course of this project. Your constant enthusiasm, support, and dedication made this such a great experience, and I am incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you. Throughout this process, you pushed me to be a better scholar and gave me the confidence to continue in academia, and for that, I am sincerely grateful. I could not have done this without all your guidance, so thank you, thank you, thank you. Sincere thanks also go out to Dr. Dennis Baker. You have given me so much support during my Masters career and I am so happy you were a member of my committee. You provided such thorough, thought-provoking feedback and made valuable contributions to my project; it would not have been the same without you. Thank you to Dr. Myrna Dawson for acting as my external examiner, especially given the short timeframe. The depth of your feedback was astonishing and very much appreciated. You have given me so much to think about moving forward and I am grateful for having the opportunity to get your thoughts on my project. To my amazing parents, Kathy and Ernst Schumann, you have always taught me that hard work and determination pay off, and I owe much of my success to your unwavering ability to never stop believing in me. Thank you so much for everything. I would like to give a big thanks to my partner Mat for all the love you have shown me over the past eight years. I am so lucky to have you in my life and I look forward to our future together. Thanks to my friends (new and old), for all your encouragement during the last two years, it was always nice knowing that I had such a great support system to fall back on (and a shoulder or two to cry on if I needed it). Last, but certainly not least, a very special thanks goes out to my kitty Martin. You literally sat by my side every step of the way and provided much needed cuddles at exactly the right times. My life changed for the better the day we found you! iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Bail: The Canadian Context .................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Study Overview ..................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Perspectives ......................................................... 11 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 12 Gender, Legal and Extra-Legal Controls ............................................................................... 13 Gender and Type of Bail Releases ........................................................................................ 18 Gender and Remand .............................................................................................................. 22 The Intersection Between Gender, Risk and Bail .................................................................. 26 2.3 Theoretical Perspectives ...................................................................................................... 29 Legislative Changes Relating to Bail .................................................................................... 29 Risk Management .................................................................................................................. 33 Governmentality .................................................................................................................... 38 Summary of Theoretical Frameworks ................................................................................... 41 2.4 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 43 2.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 3: Data and Methods ....................................................................................................... 45 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 45 3.2 Data Collection .................................................................................................................... 45 Courtroom observations ........................................................................................................ 45 3.3 Sample ................................................................................................................................. 48 3.4 Analytic Strategy ................................................................................................................. 50 3.4.1 Thematic analysis ............................................................................................................. 50 Key Measures ........................................................................................................................ 52 Additional themes .................................................................................................................. 54 3.4.2 Logistic Regression .......................................................................................................... 55 Key Measures: ....................................................................................................................... 55 3.4.3 Exploratory analysis: Deep sample method ..................................................................... 59 Matching the accused ............................................................................................................ 60 3.5 Limitations of the analytic design ....................................................................................... 66 3.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 4: Results ......................................................................................................................... 69 iv 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 69 4.2 Thematic Analysis ............................................................................................................... 69 Justifications for Granting Bail.............................................................................................. 69 Bail Conditions ...................................................................................................................... 73 4.3 Quantitative Analysis .......................................................................................................... 76 Cross-Tabular Analysis ......................................................................................................... 76 Logistic Regression ............................................................................................................... 87 4.4 Deep Sample Exploratory Qualitative Analysis.................................................................. 91 Drug/Alcohol Use: Women receiving more restrictive bail releases .................................... 92 Mental health and Culpability: Men receiving more restrictive bail releases ....................... 97 Employment and Children: Similar bail outcomes but different justifications ................... 101 Similar outcomes and justifications ..................................................................................... 104 4.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................................