Among the British bloggers who never fail to deliver are William Collins and Herbert Purdy. William Collins has just published a remarkable piece on the anti-male bias of the justice system, which we’ll be citing in our election manifesto. Hopefully the piece’s conclusion (below) will whet your appetite to read the piece in full. It will be time well spent, I promise you.
Men are subject to massive gender discrimination in the criminal justice system. If male offenders were treated in the same way as female offenders there would be only one-sixth of the number of men in prison. About 68,000 men would not be in prison if they were female, leaving a male prison population of only 13,000.
Six months ago we presented the Clean Break theatre company with a ‘Gormless Feminists of the Month’ award for claiming women were disadvantaged by the justice system. The story is here along with a link to their award certificate. I’ve just checked out their site, and their mind-numbingly idiotic claims are still there. Once a gormless feminist, always a gormless feminist, it seems.
Justice for Men & Boys 
One of the Clean Break Theatre Company’s claims was, “The treatment of women by the criminal justice system is one of the clearest demonstrations that our society is still fundamentally unequal and that women are judged by different standards to men… first-time women offenders are twice as likely as men to be sent to prison.”
This is one of the many feminist urban myths which get repeated endlessly, and refuted just as often, to no avail. Philip Davies, conservative MP for Shipley, demolished this untruth in the House of Commons on 16 October 2012. I copy in full the exchanges he had with Labour MP Jenny Chapman (whilst a bunch of other feminist MPs snapped at his heels)…
Philip Davies: The Ministry of Justice’s publication, “Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System”, published in November 2010—it is produced to ensure there is no sex discrimination in the system—states: “Of sentenced first-time offenders (7,320 females and 25,936 males), a greater percentage of males were sentenced to immediate custody than females (29% compared with 17%), which has been the case in each year since 2005.”
People have had a briefing from the Prison Reform Trust, which tries to persuade them that women with no previous convictions are more likely to be sent to prison than men, but that is categorically not the case, as the Ministry of Justice’s own publication makes abundantly clear.
Jenny Chapman: I congratulate the hon. Gentleman for providing us with an opportunity to help him understand the issue. Women convicted of a first offence—the same offence as a man—are more likely to receive a custodial sentence. I do not think he has the figures for that.
Philip Davies: No, they are not. That is the whole point. For every category of offence, men are more likely to be sent to prison than women. According to the Ministry of Justice’s own publication, of first-time offenders, men are much more likely—not just slightly—to be sent to prison. That is a fact.
Jenny Chapman: May I explain again? I am talking about the first offence and the same offence. The hon. Gentleman has figures for first-time offending overall and for different categories of offence. However, if we take the same offence for men and for women—the first conviction—women are more likely to get a custodial sentence.
Philip Davies: No, they are not. For the benefit of the hon. Lady, I have every single category of offence. I have figures for the likelihood of men and women being sent to prison for exactly the same offence. What she is saying is simply not the case.
The Home Office undertook statistical research some years ago to try to ascertain the best comparison for similar situations. Home Office Research Study 170, “Understanding the sentencing of women”, edited by Carol Hedderman and Loraine Gelsthorpe, looked at 13,000 cases and concluded: “Women shoplifters were less likely than comparable males to receive a prison sentence…among repeat offenders women were less likely to receive a custodial sentence. Women first offenders were significantly less likely than equivalent men to receive a prison sentence for a drug offence”.
The Ministry of Justice publication I mentioned earlier also covers the issue of pre-sentence reports and their recommendations for sentences in the courts. It says: “In 2009, a lower proportion of women who had a pre-sentence report that recommended immediate custody went on to receive this sentence than men (83% compared with 90% for males). For all other sentence options recommended in pre-sentence reports (Suspended Sentence Order, all community sentences or fines), a higher proportion of males received custodial sentences than females.”
…and later he adds,
To suggest that more female first-time offenders are more likely to be sent to prison than men is not the case. The hon. Lady says that a higher proportion of women in prison are first-time offenders, but that is because they are less likely to be sent to prison unless they commit particularly serious offences and leave the courts no option but to send them to prison. It is a complete distortion of the facts, and the Ministry of Justice publication makes that perfectly clear.
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Rick, thanks for this. Philip Davies won our ‘Winston’ award on the strength of his contribution to this debate, and I had the pleasure of meeting him. A very impressive politician.
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This is indeed a valuable and revealing analysis . I would add that the Bradley Report exposed the very high proportion of prisoners who are learning disabled or otherwise vulnerable . It could be prison is often a holding place for men for whom there is no service in the community.
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