Judge Peer Effects In the Courthouse

We investigate whether consequential decisions made by judges are impacted by the gender composition of these judges peer group. We utilize the universe of decisions on juvenile defendants in each courthouse in Louisiana over 15 years. Leveraging random assignment of cases to judges, and variations in judge peer composition generated by elections, retirements, deaths and resignations, we show that an increase in the proportion of female peers in the courthouse causes a rise in individual judges propensity to incarcerate, and an increase in the assigned sentence length. This effect is driven by female judges. We also demonstrate that the impact of the proportion of female peers is not a proxy for other peer characteristics such as race, party affiliation, age or tenure. Further analysis suggests that this behavior of female judges is unlikely to be a reflection of an effort to conform to evolving norms of judicial stringency, measured by peers harshness in sentencing, but that it is due to the sheer exposure to female colleagues