Emma Milne

Women and the criminal justice system - moving beyond the silo

Women’s experiences of crime as both offenders and victims are different to their male counter-parts. They commit less crime, and the crime they commit is generally different to men’s, with less involvement in violent crime, criminal damage or professional crime. Women are much more likely to be victims of sexual and physical assault at the hands of a man they are acquainted with and in the context of relationships. However, women’s involvement with the criminal justice system often results in their isolation, stigmatisation and inadequate support—whether they are victims, offenders or both. This volume considers women’s involvement in criminal justice as a whole—to move beyond the silo of seeing two distinct groups by recognising that for many women there are similarities in both pathways to offending and pathways to victimisation. Furthermore, it aims to put women at the centre of the debate on crime and punishment. Too often in political discussions, academia and media reports, women’s involvement in the system is marginalised, ignored or lost in the concerns about male crime. This introduction highlights the key areas of debate and introduces the contributions by the authors in this collection.

Understanding violent women

Violent women pose a specific challenge for feminist scholars. Nevertheless, it is important for both the offender and her victims that feminists engage with this form of offending. This chapter considers some of the data concerning women’s violence, the public and professional responses to violent women and how researchers have attempted to understand their behaviour. Focusing around ‘extreme’ deeds, we use two forms of offending—women who kill, and women who sexually abuse children—to explore what we know about female violence and the significance of gender in both social and legal contexts.

Criminalising Neonaticide: Reflections on Law and Practice in England and Wales

This chapter considers the unusual case where a woman is suspected of killing her newborn baby following a secret pregnancy and birth. The research on what we know about the circumstances and incidence of what has been termed ‘neonaticide’ is explored. The complexities of these cases in terms of their circumstances and the vulnerability of women who conceal their pregnancies are highlighted. Following this, the difficulties, from a legal perspective, that arise when seeking to prosecute women for homicide when their babies die following an unassisted concealed birth are considered. What we know about current criminal justice practice in these cases is also explored. Unfortunately, there is limited research on current criminal justice practice in these cases, and little is therefore known about the approach taken by the police, prosecutors and the courts in cases involving suspected homicides of newborns. The need for further research on the criminal justice response is highlighted, and the appropriateness of criminalising women and girls in these cases, particularly given their unique circumstances of vulnerability, is questioned.