Title: Why Do Female Criminals Get Lighter Sentences | LY Lawyers
Headings: Why do Female Criminals Get Lighter Sentences Than Men?
Why do Female Criminals Get Lighter Sentences Than Men?
Why do female criminals get lighter sentences than men?
Do female offenders generally receive shorter sentences than men?
Should we treat female offenders different from male offenders?
Being a mother will lead to a shorter term of imprisonment

Content: Are our courts inherently biased in favour of women? What are the factors associated with the discrepancies between male and female sentencing? One reason that female offenders get lighter sentences than men may be because men tend commit more serious offences than women. For example, the Victorian Sentencing Council reveals the following gender breakdown in offences: “Men predominate in offences such as assault (11.8% of men versus 7.5% of women), sex offences (18.5% versus 3.5%) and unlawful entry with intent (burglary) (11.0% versus 6.0%), while women most commonly appear in prison with property offences (including theft) (21% of women versus 6.1% of men) and deception offences (10.0% versus 3.1%).” Even though there has been a steady increase in female offending over the past few years, murder and other violent crimes are still generally under the domain of men and the offending pattern of women is different than that of men. Females tend to commit offences that are of less danger to others such as shoplifting, drug offences or fraud related offences in comparison to their male counterparts. Liddell and Martinovic point out that historically, “women unlike men infrequently resort to violence.” Another factor that is considered when sentencing an offender is whether or not the offender has a prior record. Females (53.9%) are less likely to have a prior record than men (38.2%).