Areas of Expertise

• Women and incarceration
• Death penalty
• Penal policies
• Gender and crime
• Failure to protect laws

Key Findings

• Regardless of the race of the defendant, the data show that the odds of receiving a death sentence for defendants whose victims are white females is 9.59 times higher than in cases with minority male victims. MORE
• The odds of receiving a death sentence for defendants whose victims are white males is 3.22 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. MORE
• The odds of a death sentence for defendants whose victims are minority females is 8.68 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. MORE

Biography

Susan Sharp, Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma, is an expert in gender differences in deviant behavior, the effects of incarceration on families of inmates, female offenders and the death penalty.

Sharp is a fellow with the College of Liberal Studies. She consulted with the Constitution Project Oklahoma Death Penalty Evaluation, the Evaluation of Friends for Folks Program and the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth. Sharp also co-chaired the Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents Task force and conducted the research for the task force report to the Oklahoma Legislature. Sharp served on the executive board of the American Society of Criminology and was the founding editor of Feminist Criminology, the official journal of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology.

She has been published in numerous academic journals, including Feminist Formations, Sociological Inquiry and the Journal of Criminal Justice.

Sharp received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas and her M.A. and B.A. in Sociology from Texas Tech University.