Women's imprisonment in England and Wales

Abstract

Receptions into women's prisons have more than doubled in the last 10 years. A number of explanations have been offered for this: changes in the nature and seriousness of women's crime, moves towards dealing with male and female offenders more `equally', changes in sentencing patterns, changes in the `type' of women sentenced to imprisonment and increases in the length of women's prison sentences. This article shows that, in the main, these explanations are inadequate. It also identifies the paradox which exists between this increasing penality and women's pathways into crime. Women who commit crime, including women in prison, tend not to commit serious crime, and continue to be drawn from those who experience economic and social deprivation. The Government recognizes this disjuncture to a degree (especially through the activities of its Social Exclusion Unit) but this article argues that more radical shifts in sentencing policy and practice are required to stem the increasingly rapid flow of women being sent to prison.