ABSTRACT
The female offender population is significantly smaller than that of men, displaying proportionally lower rates of violence and higher rates of offences such as theft and fraud.
Female offenders are more likely than men to have suffered from some form of abuse, both as a child and as an adult.
Violence perpetrated by women is more likely to take place within the family home, towards partners, children or other family members.
Women tend to enact their aggression towards their own bodies through self-harm more than men, and this is associated with an increased risk of violence.
Women can perpetrate direct or indirect physical and/or sexual abuse, and their pathways into offending are different from those in men.
The motivation for infanticide perpetrated by women tends to fall into distinct categories. Induced or fabricated illness is almost always perpetrated by the child’s mother and carries a significant risk of filicide.
Although female offenders display lower rates of psychopathy than men, personality disorder is more common in female offenders, and is more closely associated with violence.
Female offenders present different needs in terms of risk assessment, management and treatment from their male counterparts.
