Gender and Crime Statistics – ReviseSociology

Table of Contents

Last Updated on July 31, 2024 by Karl Thompson

Men are more likely to commit more serious crimes than women. They are more likely to be arrested and sent to jail than women. Men are also more likely to be victims of more serious crimes such as murder and violence against the person.

Women commit less serious offences and are less likely to go jail. Only 4% of the prison population is female. Women are less likely to be victims of most crimes, but they are more likely to be victims of sexual offences than men.

This post is a summary of the latest crime statistics focussing of gender differences in offending, victimisation and punishment.

The latest available figures are from Women and the Criminal Justice System 2021, published by the Ministry of Justice in November 2022.

This is an important update for the gender and crime topic which makes up part of the A-level sociology crime and deviance module.

Men are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted and sent to jail

There are approximately equal numbers of men and women in the population as a whole, but

85% of people arrested are male
79% of those prosecuted are male
96% of people who go to prison are male,
women only make up 4% of the total prison population.

graph showing male and female arrest and prosecution rates

Both the male and female crime rates have been declining over the last five years of statistics, with fewer men and women being dealt with by the criminal justice system.

The proportion of female offenders compared to male offenders has shrunk in the last five years. In 2017 26% of offenders were female. In 2021 only 21% of offenders were female.

bar chart showing male and females dealt with by criminal justice system 2017 to 2022

Men commit more serious crimes than women

Men commit more crime than women in almost all categories of crime. As a general rule men commit a higher proportion of more serious crimes. For example:

men commit 98% of sexual offences.
men commit 82% of violence against the person offences.
men commit 92% of drug offences.

The most equal in terms of gender are fraud offences and summary non-motoring offences. Men commit 74% of fraud offences and 66% of summary non-motoring offences.

Men are more likely to commit indictable offences

‘Indictable offences’ are those more serious offences dealt with by the crown court. You are much more likely to go to jail for an indictable offence. Men are twice as likely to be on trial for an indictable offence compared to women.

78% of males are in court for summary (less serious offences) compared to 90% of women, and men are more likely to on trial for motoring offences!

Differences in male and female offending, less serious crimes

The biggest differences are as follows:

men are much more likely to be given penalty notices for possession of cannabis.
Women are much more likely to be given penalty disorder notices for theft, basically shoplifting.
Women are three times as likely to be given a notice for wasting police time compared to men, although the figures are small.
A higher proportion. of women are also prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly, although this is a very large category for both men and women.

Also, and this isn’t shown above, 74% of prosecutions for television licence evasions are against women.

Women are much less likely to go to jail compared to men

in 2021 men were twice as likely than women to be sent straight to jail. 34% of men were sent straight to jail compared to only 17% of women.

Women are more likely to receive community service as a type of punishment than men. In 2021 28% of women convicted for indictable (more serious) offences received community service compared to only 19% of men.

bar chart showing proportions of men and women sent to jail UK

These gender differences in offending relate to the fact that women commit less serious crimes than men, rather than the courts treating women more leniently.

Women receive shorter prison sentences than men

The average custodial prison sentence length more men was 22.7 years in 2021, compared to 14.5 years for women.

It’s worth noting that the length of prison sentences has increased for both men and women over the last for years. The gap between the two has remained relatively stable.

Women only make up 4% of the prison population

The proportion of women compared to men in jail remained stable at 5% for women, 95% for men between 2015 and 2019. In 2021 this changed and today men make up 96% of the prison population and women only 4%.

Female prisoners are twice as likely to self-harm compared to men

13% of male prisoners self-harmed in 2021 compared to 35% of female prisoners.

This suggests that women find the experience of going to jail more stressful than men.

It’s also worth noting that 35% is is a HUGE proportion of female prisoners.

Gender and victimisation

Patterns of victimisation also vary by gender.

Men are more likely than women to be victims of any type of crime. In 2021 4.1% of men were victims of all personal crime compared to only 2.8% of women.
2.2% of men were victims of violent crime compared to only 1.4% of women.
Men are 3 times more likely to victims of robbery compared to men
Women are twice as likely than men to victims of theft from the person

Homicide statistics and gender

Men are twice as likely to be murdered compared to women.

Women are much more likely to be murdered by a partner or ex partner compared to men. 54% of women were murdered by a partner or ex partner compared to only 5% of men.