has found that male teachers receive harsher punishments than female teachers when they are convicted of crimes involving sexual relationships with students. Experts credit the disparity to societal perceptions that young girls must be protected and are much more vulnerable than their underage male counterparts.

The sample, which followed cases in New Jersey, found that 54 percent of male defendants went to prison, while only 44 percent of women did time after they were found to have conducted inappropriate sexual activities. The longest jail term for a male teacher was 10 years, compared with 7 for a female. Interestingly, that 7 year sentence was the result of a female coach having relations with a female player.

"There’s a general societal disposition that does continue to treat women as the gentler sex, so typically the threshold for sending women to prison is higher," Martin Horn, director of the New York State Sentencing Commission and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the Star-Ledger.

Cases that highlight the disparity in sentencing include a Bergen County female teacher who was only sentenced to one year probation for a relationship with a 14-year-old boy, while a male teacher received a nine-year sentence after a relationship with a 16-year-old girl.

Prosecutors noted that each case has its own particular corroborating evidence and circumstances that influence plea deals, or, in the case of a trial, verdicts and sentences.