Published date:
Leona Tate
Whilst there is an increasing body of academic research that focuses on women’s involvement within the criminal justice system (O’Neill, 2015), research focusing on females who offend remains less prevalent than published research about males who offend. Statistics published in 2024/25 by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI), show that the number of males (3,692) on Probation’s caseload far outweighs the number of females (464).
Whilst trends show that, over the past five years, the numbers of female service-users supervised by PBNI have remained relatively consistent, with a small increase, the number of women entering custody has increased significantly.
Indeed, Northern Ireland’s female prison population has increased over the course of the past four years. The most recent statistics are from 2023/24, where there were ninety female prisoners, compared to 2019/20 where there were only seventy-four female prisoners (Department of Justice, 2024).
These statistics of increasing committals of women to custody and an identified gap in research support the need for evidence-based practice through adopting gender-responsive practice. Such practices have a foundation in trauma-informed practice that can support increasing use of restorative justice practices – specifically, ‘healing circles’.