Judge stands up to gender bias

A Queens judge is blasting the city's Probation Department for going easier on teenage girls than boys - even when they commit the same crimes.

Family Court Judge John Hunt accused probation of gender bias for trying to spare all but the most violent girls from prison time and the scarlet letter of the juvenile delinquent.

A family court judge? WTF??? On the side of boys??? Must be flying giraffe season.

Hunt analyzed the cases of eight teenagers who had come before him - four boys and four girls - and found that probation routinely recommended tougher treatment for boys.

Take Queens eighth-graders Stephen C. and Jennifer S.

The teens took part in the robbery of a boy who was punched, kicked and choked before having his iPod wrested away. Probation recommended that Stephen be put on supervised probation while Jennifer should have her case eventually dismissed.

Judge Hunt disagreed Monday and ordered both teens put on probation for 18 months.

"The court could find no cogent reason why Jennifer S. should be treated differently than her accomplice, Stephen C.," Hunt wrote.

Hunt blamed a "seemingly bizarre, sterile and largely impersonal system" for the disparate treatment.

In an effort to trim the number of locked-up juveniles, the city partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice in 2003 to develop a computer-generated program that would take the guesswork out of probation officers' recommendations.

A higher score on the Probation Assessment Tool (PAT) means a recommendation that could lead to eventual dismissal of charges. A lower score means probation or lockup, not to mention the juvenile delinquent tag.

Hunt claims PAT routinely rewards girls with 14 extra points for gender alone, while boys get 0.

"The system contains a built-in gender bias in favor of female delinquents," Hunt writes.

Probation officials say the computer tool predicts the likelihood of a juvenile being rearrested based on a study of 763 similar cases.

"It is an assessment tool," said Ryan Dodge, a probation spokesman. "The court can always go against it. It is not set in stone."

Hunt said probation offered up no statistics to suggest boys were more likely to get in trouble again.

tzambito@nydailynews.com

Source:click here

A computer is making the decision human beings should be making? WTF?? Who programmed the computer? This should get a lot of cases overturned. To the the judge: thank you for doing the right thing,for being a responsible jurist while dishing out justice.

Male only "privileges" that women want no part of

We often hear about how women want equality and that they want equal access to "male privilege" Now before I go on there are two types of "privileges" that are going to be talked about here: the first is the scenario of the male executives,with glasses of champagne,toasting a successful business plan and high fiving each other. Women see this and they start making demands to achieve it. What they don't see or care to for that matter is how weeks earlier when these same men were still brainstorming and trying to come up with rough drafts,with their heads in their hands. It seems women want the best of life without making the sacrifices to achieve it.

The following are "male-only privileges" that women want no part of:

Men are the only ones that face the death penalty in murder cases but even in cases where the death penalty is spared men "enjoy" longer sentences than women.

Male only selective service where men and only men have to sign up for to receive government benefits

Men receiving longer sentences for the same crimes that females also commit. Even if the woman is the mastermind she can place blame on the man to conceal her culpability.

When men and women both serve in the military only men may be required to serve in combat. Also the fitness required for women is lower than for men

Men make up the majority of occupation accidents and fatalities: 95% vs. 5%.

Men's health concerns are neglected compared to women's health issues. Men's concerns gets pennies while women's health issues gets dollars.

Women outlive men by a decade.

Men are victimize by anti-male laws such as VAWA that strips them of everything they worked hard for and destroy their reputations in the process.

If we can consider the aforementioned bullet points to be "privileges" "enjoyed" by men then I happily concede my "privileges" to whoever wants them.