ABSTRACT
In perjury trials after affiliation proceedings, gender was key. Men and their witnesses were prosecuted and convicted more often and received longer sentences, because judges and juries viewed women as vulnerable, while male perjurers were ‘unmanly’. Still, the Home Office lessened some men’s sentences based on a distrust of the testimony of sexually active women (who ‘naturally’ lied about paternity). Overall, perjury trials failed to stop false testimony, making correct judgments impossible. They also punished ‘bad apples’ without removing the structural disadvantages of unwed mothers.
