Gender and criminal justice

Gender and criminal justice

For decades, feminist criminologists have researched the gendered patterns of crime and

affirmed the differential ways women are treated by and within the criminal justice process.10

Historically, the purveyors, gatekeepers, and enforcers of law, order, and justice have been

the preserve of men who have been in charge of making legislation and laws, policing public

spaces, and delivering judgments to those guilty of crimes. Thus, men have had significant

political and legal power to determine what behaviours and activities are legal and illegal by

way of maintaining authority over how and when justice is delivered. The criminal justice

system is therefore a site of ‘gendered action’11 whereby the perceptions, interactions, and

The latest workforce data for the police forces of England and Wales show that as of 31 March

2020, 31 per cent of police officers are women. This statistic has been increasing year-on-year,

demonstrating slight improvements in the recruitment of women into the police force.

Longitudinally however, there has only been a 5 per cent increase in women joining the police

force between 2010–2020, suggesting that overall, minimal progress has been made in the past

decade. Further, there is significant disparity in the levels of women who comprise police staff –

who are civilians and often work as receptionists, HR, analysts, and custody nurses – of whom 61

per cent are women and police officers. Interestingly, unpaid police support volunteers are a

cohort of police staff where equal numbers of men and women

10 For further reading see: Pamela Davies, ‘Gender, Victims and Crime’ in Pamela Davies, Peter Francis, and

work, as the latest statistics show 51 per cent are women.12 Although women seemingly

dominate police staff civilian occupations, police officer roles are very much

disproportionately male. Thus, as concluded by Prenzler and Sinclair, ‘despite a strong case

for much greater female participation in policing, basic data on women’s progress are often

lacking, and there is an apparent large gap in many departments between positive gender

policies and less-than-optimal integration strategies’.13

When scrutinizing the gendered disparity in the level of police officers in comparison to the

level of police staff who are women, much of this can be put down to the perception of police

work, where both the public and the police officers themselves view policing as a masculine

pursuit, exemplified by a machismo, aggressive crime fighting ethos.14 The very iconography

staff workforce data seemingly reflect this, as women dominate staff roles that are

traditionally seen as feminine: receptionists, admin workers, secretaries, and support staff.

Similar patterns of gender division can be found within the judiciary. Despite large increases in

women joining the legal profession and holding practicing certificates, there exists many

gendered inequalities within the profession, particularly at senior level. For instance, as of 2019,

32 per cent of court judges were women,16 reflecting a similar ratio of women to men as is found

in the police system. Further, although the proportion of women solicitors working in private

practice increased to 49 per cent in 2019, the proportion of private practice partners that are

women was 31 per cent. In addition, it is often the case that women tend to be part-time workers

or be concentrated in specific areas of the law, such as family work, employment, and personal

DeKeseredy and Molly Dragiewicz (eds) Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology (Routledge, 2012).

15 Janet Chan and Sally Doran and Christina Marel, ‘Doing and undoing gender in policing’ (2010) 14

Theoretical Criminology 425.

16 Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, ‘Judicial Diversity Statistics’ (Bulletin, 2019).

specialisms’.17 The criminal justice system, as a site of gendered action, therefore goes

beyond male and female identity per se, but speaks of the structural and institutional

disproportionality, culture, and micro-politics that disadvantage women both within

and external to the criminal justice system.

For decades, the treatment of women within the criminal justice has been inexcusably

disappointing. In the early 1990s, a Bar Council survey found evidence of sexual harassment and

discrimination against women barristers, as well as disadvantageous treatment towards women

through allocation of work, promotions, pay increases, and pupillage applications.18 Despite

numerous legislations towards equality, including the Equality Act 2010, women remain under-

represented in senior and higher ranks of both the police matrix and the judicial system. Further,

studies have confirmed that discriminatory practices toward senior female police officers is still a

that work to violently disadvantage women.

The response to women victims by the criminal justice system is arguably even more disturbing

than the treatment of women internally. For many years, the police did not take male violence

against women seriously, viewing domestic abuse crimes as minor disputes that were often

provoked by women and required little escalation. The Equality Act 2010, the Sexual Offences

Act 2003, and the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, recognised the problem of

prejudicial biases held by police officers and the sceptical and lenient attitudes held by the courts

and judiciary when faced with sexual violence cases20 and outlawed discriminatory behaviour

towards women in these cases. Updating the law to extend anti-discrimination protections,

unfortunately, does not necessarily change practice or alter the attitudes and values

20 Peter Joyce, Criminal Justice: An Introduction (3rd Ed, Routledge, 2017).

per se of those delivering justice. Recent attitudinal surveys of police officers demonstrate

that police officers significantly lack an understanding of the nature of sexual

violence, including rape, sexual assault, and revenge porn,21 as many believe the

common myths surrounding violence against women, which have always been a long-

standing historical issue within the police.22 Further, despite false rape allegations

remaining very low – indeed there is no evidence that false allegations of rape or

sexual violence are made more frequently than any other false crime allegation –

research suggests that police believe they encounter high numbers of false rape

allegations.23

suspicious and verbalising doubt in the credibility of the victim, and disbelieving the victim’s

testimony before due process has occurred. In fact, police officers may use persuasive

questioning techniques to facilitate the withdrawal of an accusation; withdrawal of

accusations in and of themselves are often viewed erroneously by officers as equating to a

false allegation.25 Such attitudes and behaviours support and reproduce gender inequality,

especially in its manifestation as sexual violence and maintain the masculinised manner in

which sexual violence is policed. Importantly, Javaid argues this hegemonic masculinity

reinforces persistent rape myths that deny even men their justice, as he has found that male

victims of sexual violence prefer speaking to women police officers, and experience

insensitivity from officers who stereotype male rape victims as weaker, effeminate, gay, or as