In all countries that retain the death penalty for which data is available, fewer women than men are sentenced to death and executed. In the United States, for instance, 2.1% of death sentences handed down between 1973 and 2011 were imposed on female offenders, and 2.9% of the executions confirmed in the United States since 1608 were carried out on women. While some observers have taken these statistics as proof that gender bias affects capital sentencing decisions, others have pointed out that death-eligible crimes are often crimes of violence and that these are more frequently committed by male offenders.

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