Sentencing and Dependents: Motherhood as Mitigation

Abstract

Studies on the particular characteristics and needs of women offenders (Cabinet Office: Social Exclusion Task Force, 2009; Corston Report, 2007; Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2009; Women’s Justice Taskforce, 2011) have advocated a sentencing approach which acknowledges differences between the male and female sentenced populations and the differing consequential outcomes upon them. The most significant gendered variation is that a greater number of women than men in prison have been the primary caregivers for a child or children prior to their sentence. As women are one of the fastest growing populations within the prison estate, by inference, an ever-increasing number of children are affected by the imprisonment of their primary carer. Between 1995 and 2010, the female prison population more than doubled, from 1,979 to 4,236 (Ministry of Justice, 2014, Table A1.2 Offender Management Statistics Annual Tables 2013), and there was a general increase in the numbers of women sentenced for all offences, rising from 258,600 in 2002 to 299,117 in 2011 (Ministry of Justice, 2012; Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System 2011). This increase has taken place despite no corresponding increase in the volume or seriousness of female offending.