A Descriptive Profile and Socio-Historical Analysis of Female Executions in the United States

Abstract

This paper constructs a descriptive profile and socio-historical analysis of female executions in the United States from 1632 to 1997. The profile documents the race, offense, age, and occupation of executed female prisoners, and the date, method, place, jurisdiction, and region of female executions. Historical analysis of these data suggests that female executions increase when women challenge the social, political, and economic interests of the male dominant group. In the colonial period, white female executions were higher than black female executions when white females challenged the male dominated leadership of newly established colonial settlements aimed to maintain social, political, and economic controls. Black female executions increased under the extreme controls imposed on protecting institutional slavery and when black females challenged their subordinate status as slaves. Female executions decreased in the immediate postbellum period when social relations were relatively positive, but increased in later decades when social relations became chaotic and heavily strained. Analysis also reveals limited evidence supporting the notion that female prisoners in the modern era have received preferential treatment in the imposition of capital punishment in the United States.