W@W Topic of the Month

January 2009

Women and the Criminal Justice System

This topic has many strands: women as victims, women as offenders, and women working in the judicial system, police or prison service to name only a few.

The Fawcett Society has its roots in the suffrage campaigns of the 19th century and works for a society in which women and men are equal partners at home, at work and in public life. The Society is currently working to draw attention to the disadvantage faced by women in the criminal justice system through two projects: Fawcett's Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System and the Justice for Rape Victims Campaign

Fawcett’s Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System was established in 2003 to investigate women’s experience of all aspects of the criminal justice system. The Commission has highlighted the disadvantages faced by women throughout the criminal justice system and has succeeded in prompting legislative, organisational and policy changes. As the Commission is entering its last phase, and is due to publish its report in May of 2009. The report will focus on the key areas of progress and areas of failure in relation to the Commission’s recommendations across the criminal justice agencies. It will also present a roadmap of necessary reform over the next five to ten years to ensure that women in the future get a fair deal from the criminal justice system.

Since it was established, the Commission has published a number of reports. In the most recent report, Women and Justice, published in 2007, the Commission concluded that:
* Prison is overused, ineffective and often damaging for many women offenders, while existing community sentences often fail to meet the needs of women.
* Services for female victims of crime are geographically patchy and vary in quality. Violence against women remains at crisis levels, and the Government has failed to produce a national strategy to address violence against women, a key recommendation of last year’s Commission report.
* The implementation of the gender equality duty must be prioritised across the criminal justice system to ensure that all criminal justice agencies are meeting their legal obligations.

The Commission is now gathering evidence for its final report and would like to gather the views of women and their experiences of the criminal justice system in the following areas:
* Female suspects and offenders
* Female victims of crime
* Women working in the Police Force
* Women working in the Prison Service
* Women working in the Probation Service
* Women working in the legal profession
* Organisations working with women offenders
* Organisations working with female victims

Contributed by Susan Kruse (W@W Website Co-ordinator)