Equality with a vengeance: The over-incarceration of women (original) (raw)
The over-incarceration of women Equality with a ven
The increased incarceration of women for violence-related offences in some Australian and overseas jurisdictions points to pervasive systemic gender bias and discrimination in the criminal justice process. Emerging anecdotal and recent research and court-related data are disturbing and suggest that women's fundamental human rights and freedoms are under attack.
Human Rights Abuses & Discrimination against Women in the Criminal Justice System in NSW
It is documented that imprisonment rates of women have been increasing rapidly, both worldwide and in Australia, over the past decade. Discrimination against women may help to account for their increased numbers in the criminal justice system, but is also a concern in its own right. Looking at the context of New South Wales, we explore how women are subject to direct and indirect discrimination based on sex, race and disability in the police, court and prison systems. Changes in legislation and practices within the system over the past two decades have impacted negatively upon particular groups of people, especially upon poor and racialised women and women with mental or cognitive health concerns. Further to this, practices such as strip searching have a pernicious effect on women in custody. These developments, along with other practices imposed upon women in the criminal justice system, are argued to constitute systemic discrimination.
Analysing Trends in the Imprisonment of Women in Australia and New Zealand
As in the United States and many other Western nations, incarceration rates in Australia and New Zealand have risen significantly over the past two decades. An interesting aspect of this trend is that internationally, incarceration rates for females have increased faster than those for men. A number of researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted to explain this phenomenon. This article looks at two countries that are culturally similar and geographically close: Australia and New Zealand. Disproportionate rises in female prison populations are visible in these jurisdictions. Focussing on the 2001–2012 period, the reasons for the disproportionate rises in female incarceration rates are hypothesized and compared. It is suggested that while the drivers of the changes are in some cases similar, there are also some interesting differences between the two countries.
(2015) (with Carol Hedderman) 'Sentencing Women: An Analysis of Recent Trends'
2015
Drawing on analyses of official statistics and on a recent interview study with a small sample of magistrates and judges, the findings indicate that whilst overall the use of custody appears to have remained fairly static, there are interesting differences between the sentencing practices of magistrates and Crown Court sentencers. Moreover, rather than witnessing significant shifts between immediate custody and non-custodial options for women, a key finding of this analysis concerns the shifting landscape within non-
Just or unjust? Problematising the gendered nature of criminal justice
In 1950, Otto Pollak claimed in his book the criminality of women, that female offenders were preferentially treated in a criminal justice system dominated by men and thus characterised by male notions of chivalry. Pollak presumed that offending women were placed on pedestals, treated gallantly and protected from punishment, with the result that their criminal activity was less likely to be detected, reported, prosecuted, or sentenced harshly. Since Pollak, the question of gender difference in judicial processing has undergone extensive international scrutiny. After more than five decades of research, discussion and debate, what can we now say about Pollak’s claim. Do women, in comparison to men, receive different judicial outcomes and, if so, is this ‘fair’, ‘just’ or ‘legitimate’? To answer these questions, this paper begins by briefly summarising both international and national research that has considered the issue of gender difference in criminal court outcomes, particularly sentencing and remand. The ramifications of these research findings are then considered with reference to ongoing feminist debates surrounding issues of gender equality, equity and difference.
Gender and the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales
MSt. Criminology, 2023
Is it useful to focus on gender in understanding and improving criminal justice responses to violence? Why, or why not? This essay employs gender as a socially constructed category which generally corresponds to the related but separate biological categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’, which are to some extent, dimorphic. The separate sociological and biological facets of these categories, of course, exist in complex dialogue (Butler, 1990). Given the scale of this question and the myriad avenues of interrogation, this essay will pursue a focus on disparate and gendered experiences apropos offending patterns, sentencing, and the reception and exertion of violence. Traditionally masculinist gender archetypes will be assessed for their promotion of certain forms of emotional or physical violence (including against women) as laudable or ‘to be expected’, through both a discursive unpicking of masculinity and an assessment of endocrinological accounts. This essay will also observe gender in a more abstract manner by taking the intervention of transgender and non-binary experiences as a foil to a static employment of ‘gender’. Similarly, we will test whether viewing individuals as those harbouring vulnerabilities (Gelsthorpe, 2022) and needs that render one more or less likely to commit – and be the victim of – certain types of crime, can enable us to tread beyond the boundaries of ‘gendered’ analysis. Such approaches may enable us to see men and women as less dimorphic creatures, instead as fluid and dynamic objects of study “…exposed to others, vulnerable by definition…” (Butler, 2009: 33). This essay ultimately contends that considering gender is pivotal to understanding and improving CJS responses to violence but cautions against viewing it in a silo or as a static category. While suggestions for theoretical and practical ‘improvements’ will be mounted in each section of this essay in a cumulative fashion, the analysis will conclude by looking specifically at the interventions of Problem-Solving Courts as an example of a gender-informed response to violence that might elevate us past the conversation of ‘what works for women’ into the realm of ‘what works for everyone?’.
Women in prison: is the justice system fit for purpose?
2016
Felicity Gerry QC and Lyndon Harris, in partnership with Halsbury’s Law Exchange, have spent the last three years researching sentencing and treatment of female offenders within the criminal justice system to determine whether there is a true and principled case for reform. In 2014, they published the report Women in prison: is the penal system fit for purpose? which aimed to help further discussion to develop workable penal law and policy suggestions. Two years on, and despite a number of significant reports from leading charities such as The Howard League, Women In Prison and the Prison Reform Trust, which have similarly aimed to bring about change in the way we treat women throughout the criminal justice system, it is clear that both the justice and the penal systems are still failing to address the multiple and complex needs posed by women. This discussion paper therefore aims to bring these important issues once again to the forefront and to strengthen the other voices also try...
Beijing Law Review, 2023
Feminism revolutionized criminology. Important issues were questioned within the feminist agenda, such as (in)equality in the criminal justice system and the disproportionate impact of imprisonment on women. In a scenario of worldwide increasing female incarceration, gender-differentiated sentencing regimes have been discussed, aiming at reducing prison sentences. In the present study, we set out to answer the following question: from a feminist criminological perspective, is it possible to reconcile the idea of a differentiated sentencing regime for women and the fundamental rights to equality and proportionality in sentencing? Building upon the feminist analytical categories of domination and patriarchy (Gerda Lerner, Catharine MacKinnon, and Sylvia Walby), our goal is to break the logic of gender neutrality/insensitivity at sentencing. Equality and proportionality cannot be the only relevant considerations in sentencing. On the contrary, positive gender discrimination is a requirement of substantive justice. The study explores some possibilities, such as introducing a mitigating circumstance due to womanhood, or when a woman offender does not pose a significant risk to society or when she is the primary caregiver of dependents, especially children. Such discussion necessarily involves empirical data from countries like Brazil, where the growth of female imprisonment has been particularly alarming, and the rights of women are often violated within the criminal justice system. More importantly, we suggest defining a new purpose for sentencing: emancipation or female empowerment. As a result, prison sentences for women should be seriously treated as ultima ratio, applicable only in exceptional cases (violent and sexual crimes).
In Through the Out Door: Women and Prison Release in New South Wales, Australia
Macquarie University: Doctorate of Philosophy, 2008
Since the developm ent of the prison as the privileged m ode of punishment, the penal apparatus has been diversified, fragm ented, and extended in a variety o f ways. Just beyond the prison there exists another dom ain; one that is situated in the social body but remains inscribed in penal practices and that problem atizes release from its confines.
Women Behind Bars: Explanations and Implications
The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 2003
Increases in the women's prison population in the UK, in line with many other industrialised countries, is occurring at an alarming rate and yet the types of offences for which women are imprisoned and the lengths of sentences they receive suggest that most present little risk to society. However, the personal and social costs to these women and their families of being imprisoned, and the economic costs to society, can be immense. Through an analysis of official statistics, this article explores some possible explanations for the growth in female imprisonment set within the framework of effective practice with a particular emphasis on the actuarial approach to managing offenders.
Using the focal concerns perspective, this study extends C. Bond and S. Jeffries’s (2010) past statistical sentencing research on Indigeneity and gender by undertaking a narrative exploration of sentencing transcripts. In contrast to statistical studies that have explored intersections between gender and race-ethnicity in North America, this Australia-based research suggests that gender does not bypass Indigenous (minority) female defendants. Rather, differences in the sentencing stories by Indigenous status appeared to reduce assessments of blameworthiness and risk for Indigenous female defendants. Furthermore, Indigenous women were viewed differently from non-Indigenous females in terms of social cost (i.e., practical constraints and consequences). These findings sug- gest a possible explanation for sentencing leniency being extended to Indigenous female defendants.
Anti-Feminist Backlash and Gender-Relevant Crime Initiatives in the Global Context
Feminist Criminology, 2008
Anti-Feminist Backlash and Gender-Relevant Crime Initiatives in the Global Context A s we move further into the new millennium, feminist criminologists have found themselves in the midst of a volatile and politicized challenge, the challenge of sustaining the gains of second wave feminism in the face of neoconservative politics and the strength of global capitalism. From the 1990s onward, a body of research has emerged on ways feminist successes appear to be ricocheting back with an ever meaner or harsher twist. One example is the changed landscape of crime and justice for women in the United States-where women are treated "equally" to their male counterparts in the criminal justice system, no matter how (in)appropriate and (ir)rational such equal treatment is-a development Chesney-Lind (2006) poignantly named "vengeful equity" in her contribution to the inaugural issue of Feminist Criminology. A second example is the ways an Internet-linked international men's rights movement is reshaping domestic violence and family law discourse and policy to constitute men as equally or indeed more victimized than women in domestic "conflict," resulting in increases in dual-arrests and the erosion of funding for women's anti-domestic violence advocacy and services in Canada and other jurisdictions (Mann, 2008; Miller & Meloy, 2006). These are but two examples of antifeminist backlash and the very real impacts this backlash is having on policies relevant to female victimization and offending in jurisdictions across the globe. From America to Australia,
Criminology, gender and security in the Australian context: Making women’s lives matter
Theoretical Criminology, 2017
This article examines how it might be possible to make women’s lives matter in contemporary criminological understandings of security. In doing so it considers the conceptual complexity of security, and reflects on the criminological engagement with that complexity and the feminist contribution to it paying particular attention to current concerns with everyday security. The article deploys the contemporary Australian policy agenda on family violence to illustrate the paradoxes to be found within these current pre-occupations. Drawing on feminist informed work that situates violence against women within the conceptual framework of everyday terrorism, it concludes by offering further consideration to the meaning of everyday security and the implications that this has for contemporary criminological concerns with security.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2021
Women’s rates of remand, or pre-trial detention, have grown dramatically in Australia and the rates at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are incarcerated without conviction are particularly high. However, there is little research examining bail and remand practices and their relationship to social inequalities. This article presents findings from research on the drivers behind women’s increasing rates of custodial remand in Victoria—a jurisdiction that has significantly restricted access to bail through legislative reforms. Drawing on data derived from interviews with criminal defence and duty lawyers, we outline how bail and remand practices systematically disadvantage women experiencing housing insecurity and domestic and family violence (DFV), increasing their risk of becoming trapped in longer-term cycles of incarceration. Our analysis reinforces the need to move away from ‘tough on crime’ approaches to bail. It also highlights unintended consequences of DFV refo...
Gender judgments: an investigation of gender differentiation in sentencing and remand in New Zealand
University of Canterbury. Sociology, 2001
This thesis addresses the complex and often contentious matter of gender difference in criminal court processing. In New Zealand, little substantive research has been conducted on the issue and this study attempts to remedy the deficit by providing an understanding of how gender operates in New Zealand's criminal justice system. To achieve this, a statistical analysis of 388 individuals, or 194 matched male/female pairs, was conducted. This was accompanied by a casestudy analysis of 50 matched male/female pairs, including investigation of individual crime stories, together with Judges' sentencing remarks and Probation Officers' pre-sentencing reports. It was found that: a) sentencing and remand outcomes often differed for adult men and women, with the former usually receiving 'harsher' sanctions, b) different factors were often considered when determining men's and women's judicial outcomes and, c) certain 'types' of men and women were more likely to be extended judicial leniency. In explanation, gendered ways of viewing, understanding and judging offenders indicated the manner in which judicial processing came to be differentiated by sex. For example, constructions of women as dependent, emotional, and traumatised by victimisation often appeared as explanations and excuses for women's offending. In contrast, such 'troubles' appeared as simply unbelievable or irrelevant in the case of men. In this way, men were denied justifications for their offending and they tended to be held fully responsible for their actions. These findings ultimately led to the question of whether male and female offenders should be treated the same or differently by the criminal courts. I argue that before this can be fully addressed, a more balanced understanding of gender and its impact on men's lives is required. I challenge feminist criminologists to transcend the boundaries of the equality/difference debate by problematising criminal justice processing as it relates to both sexes, rather than simply in terms of women versus men. Chapter One Gender and th Criminal Justice stem "One of the outstanding concomitants of the existing inequality between the sexes is chivalry and the general protective attitude of man toward woman. This attitude exists on the part of the male victim of crime as well as on the part of the officers of the law, who are largely male in our society. Men hate to accuse women and thus indirectly send them to their punishment:, police officers dislike to arrest them, district attorneys to prosecute them, judges and juries to find them guilty, and so anN
Gender Crime and Criminal Justice
The Government has recently recognised there are six strands to equality which consists of: Race; Age; Disability; Religion; Sexual Orientation and Gender. However, despite the many improvements in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) that adhere to prevent inequality, it has been insinuated that discrimination still exists. This research paper will give a critical analysis on a range of issues and policies that produce discrimination within the Criminal Justice System.