NCJ Number
139671
Date Published
1992
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Statistics on female offenders in the United Kingdom for the 1990's address the number of female offenders, the police cautions issued to female offenders, convictions, sentencing, and imprisonment.
Abstract
One in five known offenders are women. Twenty-one percent of the 1,079,200 offenders cautioned or found guilty by the courts in 1990 were women, 32 percent more than in 1980. The increase is largely due to the number of women convicted of television-license evasion. Seventeen percent of the 509,100 offenders cautioned or found guilty of indictable offenses in 1990 were women. A quarter of known women offenders are cautioned by the police; this involves a formal warning given to an offender who admits an offense and is given an alternative to prosecution. One in five defendants found guilty by the courts are women, and women offenders are more likely than men to be given a discharge or a treatment order and less likely to be fined or given a community-service order. One in 25 offenders sentenced to prison are women. Four percent of those sentenced to immediate imprisonment in 1990 were women. The average daily number of women in prison was 1,597 in 1990 and 1,561 in 1991. Proportionately more women than men serving sentences have been convicted of theft, handling, fraud and forgery, or drug offenses. Proportionately fewer women than men serving prison sentences are sentenced for burglary. 10 references