Public Perception of Female Offenders - Essay Example

It tries to focus on the differences of opinion amongst male and female respondents. They are a very small majority, only 14% of the total convicted and most of them are in the prison for a very short term. Usually their offences are trivial; but this does not mean that there are no serious offenders. Sometimes imprisonment begins as early as at 16. Roughly almost half of the accused women get convicted eventually. There had been a steady increase in the numbers of female offenders in Scotland in recent years thought compared to the raise in overall numbers, the situation is improving.

There had been unfortunate incidents like suicide plaguing the prisons for sometime now. The suicide in 1997, of a convicted female prisoner in HM Institution Cornton Vale, seventh of its kind, focussed the public mind slightly more on the plight of female prisoners. The recent deaths, all by hanging are given below: This is apart from incidents of unsuccessful self-harming which would have been fatal, but for the quick prison staff intervention. Many studies have emerged pointing out the importance of understanding social, personal, psychological backgrounds, range and availability of pre and post-sentence community disposals, further help and support, appropriate custodial arrangements and the improvement on all these measures.

Women who offend have some kind of unfortunate background and mostly have a cause too. No doubt, women who commit heinous crimes cannot be permitted to take into streets and have to be convicted. But most of the offenders would have committed petty crimes and imprisoning them will have disastrous effects on their families, children and dependents. They could be mothers, less educated school dropouts without work beyond home. They could be facing accommodation problems and might have been victims of some kind of abuse.

Also they could be drug addicts, binge drinkers, prostitutes or going through psychological distress. Usually they come from unsupportive and chaotic households. It is important to know more about this unfortunate segment of the society and compare the research with real statistics. It is important that Scottish executive claims that the number of female offenders has dropped in recent years. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/law/wosw-09.asp METHODS AND DESIGNThis report is from the male and female perspective and apart from this, also answers three important questions.

It presents the necessary charts in support of the research done. The target group number is 76 and research was conducted by six researchers with the aid of appropriate questionnaire, especially for the opinion difference between the genders. It is a cross-sectional survey design with the questionnaire support as primary method of