Abstract
This chapter examines the gender-specific drivers to women’s involvement as offenders in the criminal justice system and the centrality for many of their prior histories of victimisation. It explains the need for a specific focus on women’s imprisonment, despite women accounting for only 5% of the total prison population. Considered through the lens of the Prison Reform Trust’s targeted national advocacy programme, the chapter considers both the opportunities and barriers to women’s justice reform.
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Acknowledgements
This article reflects the efforts of my PRT Transforming Lives programme colleagues—especially Katy Swaine Williams, Tom Guiney, Zoey Litchfield and Lauren Nickolls—who tirelessly interrogate Ministry of Justice data and myriad other sources to shed light on gender differences and inequalities in the criminal justice system and how to remedy them. I would also like to thank Emma Milne who has provided invaluable comments on earlier drafts and persevered with a non-academic author!
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Earle, J. (2018). Why Focus on Reducing Women’s Imprisonment?. In: Milne, E., Brennan, K., South, N., Turton, J. (eds) Women and the Criminal Justice System. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76774-1_9
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