Kijk voor het hele artikel op: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1086315,00.html
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political
correspondent
Sunday November 16, 2003
The Observer
Women are
increasingly turning to serious and violent crimes because
they have been
brutalised by violence against them, according to a
controversial report to
be published this week.
Home Office figures last week showed the majority
of female prisoners now reoffend within two years of being released,
suggesting they are becoming more hardened criminals.
The number of
women jailed for burglary rose by 49 per cent last year, with sharp increases
too in convictions for robbery and violence. In the past decade, the number
of women serving 10 years or more but less than life has risen more than
sixfold.
The Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System, set up
by the charitable Fawcett Society and headed by Labour MP Vera Baird, will
this week argue that women turn to crime for different reasons from men,
and that the criminal justice system is failing to tackle this.
Some
were being forced into drug dealing by abusive partners they
feared, while
for others offending was closely linked to a history of
violence against
them.
Half of women prisoners say they have been hit by a partner - at
least twice the rates in the general population - and a third say they
have suffered sexual abuse.
'There seems to be a closer link between
women who are victims and women who offend than there is with men,' says
Baird, a criminal barrister. 'Lawyers tell us of women who deal drugs or hide
weapons under coercion from men who think women will be less of a target for
police.'
More than a third of sentenced female prisoners have at some
stage
attempted suicide, and two thirds are either on drugs or
drinking
heavily in the year before going into jail.
The commission,
launched almost two years ago by Cherie Blair, will call for better treatment
and routes of escape for victims of domestic
violence. 'If there are fewer
women victims, there may be fewer women offenders,' Baird said.