The Impact of the Gender of Defendants and Judges on the Outcome of Protest Cases: An Empirical Study of Court Decisions under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in Moscow

Abstract

Socio-legal studies have consistently documented the phenomenon of the “female discount”—a tendency for female defendants to receive more lenient punishments than male defendants. However, the literature on courts in authoritarian regimes suggests that decision-making patterns may differ in cases involving state interests. We analyze 15,229 court decisions under the most common parts (2, 5, 6.1, 8) of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, issued in Moscow from 2017 to 2024, to determine whether the “female discount” effect is observed in political cases. Using regression analysis, controlling for legal and extralegal factors, and including fixed effects for the year of the court decision and the court, we demonstrate that the “female discount” is observed at all stages of judicial decision-making in administrative protest cases (case dismissal, imposition of a more lenient or severe punishment, and the amount of the imposed penalty), with the exception of the possibility of imposing a fine less than the minimum. Our models also include judges’ gender; however, it has a significant impact on judicial decision-making only when deciding whether to impose a fine less than the minimum. This study contributes to the literature on empirical legal research and the study of courts in authoritarian regimes by demonstrating that even in the context of political cases in authoritarian regimes, extralegal factors in judicial decisions, and in particular the gender of the defendants, are a significant factor in judicial decisions.