| Abstract: | The profile of the women who tend to get caught up in the criminal justice system has changed little over the past 30 years. Compared to the general population, they are socially and economically disadvantaged, poorly educated and have high incidence of mental health and substance misuse problems. Experience of physical violence and sexual abuse is depressingly prevalent in their biographies (see for example, Gelsthorpe et al., 2007). In addition, the steep rise, compared to men, in the imprisonment of women throughout the 1990s, most commonly for short sentences of six months or less, exacerbated their marginalisation and failed to reduce reoffending. |
