A substantial anti-male bias exists across the criminal justice system, in part accounting for the fact there are over 80,000 male prisoners and fewer than 4,000 female prisoners. We believe a bias exists within the police with respect to the relative numbers of men and women they charge with criminal offences, and the number they put forward to the CPS for charging decisions. But what about the CPS itself? Surely it wouldn’t show an anti-male bias with respect to its charging decisions? Please excuse the bad joke.
Earlier this afternoon we received from the CPS a communication – a letter and an associated Table – in response to one of our recent FoI requests. The Table shows that the CPS prosecuted 64.8% of the women brought to it for charging decisions, and 72.4% of the men. Put another way:
The CPS is 12% more likely to decide to prosecute a man suspected of having committed a crime, than a woman.
