It is often suggested that the criminal justice system in England and Wales routinely discriminates against women. This paper, published under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, concludes that weight of evidence is against this claim.
Authors look whether sex differences in sentencing statistics simply a reflection of differences in current and previous offending or something more. The results of this large-scale study suggest that sentencers treat women differently from men, sometimes by avoiding the use of custody, but, more markedly, in their reluctance to impose fines.