The ratio of women to men indicted and tried for crime is,
roughly, about one to ten. Could adequate statistics be
procured, the proportion of female to male complainants in
criminal cases would very likely prove to be about the same:
In a very substantial proportion, therefore, of all
prosecutions for crime a woman is one of the chief actors.
The law of the land compels the female prisoner to submit the
question of her guilt or innocence to twelve individuals of
the opposite sex; and permits the female complainant to
rehearse the story of her wrongs before the same collection of
colossal intellects and adamantine hearts.

The first thing the ordinary woman hastens to do if she be
summoned to appear in a court of justice is not, as might be
expected, to think over her testimony or try to recall facts
obliterated or confused by time, but to buy a new hat; and
precisely the same thing is true of the female defendant
called to the bar of justice, whether it be for stealing a
pair of gloves or poisoning her lover.

Yet how far does the element of sex defeat the ends of
justice? To answer this question it is necessary to determine
how far juries are liable to favor the testimony of a woman
plaintiff merely because she is a woman, and how far sympathy
for a woman arraigned as a prisoner is likely to warp their
judgment.

As to the first, it is fairly safe to say that a woman is much
more likely to win a verdict in a civil court or to persuade
the jury that the prisoner is guilty in a criminal case than a