Women in prison

The situation of inequality between women and men has conditioned the behaviour of women and their assigned and expected role in society, which is also reflected in their criminal conduct.

Historically, women did not have the freedom or autonomy to commit certain crimes because of their socio-economic status, and they were imprisoned for rather arbitrary reasons for which they were considered "unworthy", a reflection of the chauvinism that has reigned in our society since ancient times and which is still present but with lower intensity these days.

The percentage of men in prison in 2022 was 92.9 per cent (51,780 inmates) compared with 7.1 per cent (3,971 inmates) of women, which inevitably results in fewer prisons with women’s units, and due to the principle of internal separation (art.99.1 PR and art.16 a) and b) GPOL), there is a reduced treatment and activitiy offer for this gender (destinations or paid work, specific treatment programs specifically, etc.) since they are always a minority. This also means that the women’s units are actually catch-all facilities in which inmates are neither separated by the offence, nor are the preventive of the convicted, nor the first offenders of the recidivists.

In terms of criminal etiology, various research show that males commit more violent crimes than females and tend to have a higher recidivism rate. In addition, according to the 2022 penitentiary statistics of the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions (SGIP), it is observed that crimes committed by women are mainly crimes against property and socio-economic order and crimes against public health, whereas crimes committed by men are the exact same, plus gender-based violence, sexual assaults and crimes against life, in that order. With regard to prison behaviour, it is not so far from that of men, being institutionalization a process that affects both sexes. There are incidents and altercations of similar scope. Although it is true that there is a greater tendency among heterosexual women to have homosexual relationships with unit-mates being both well aware that they have a family life on the outside (usually husband or analogue and children) and which they communicate and have intimate and cohabitational visits with. In other words, it is common to see relationships between two women in prison, functioning as an adaptive behaviour as they will come back to their previous life when they are released. There is -or rather persists- a significant difference in the social impact of the commission of a criminal act by a woman due to the gender role. By social learning, women have traditionally been attributed certain characteristics such as greater empathy or sensitivity, instinct for protection, altruism, etc. that have apparently inhibited them in the criminal sphere, resulting in recieving an even more marked social reproach in case of the commission of certain crimes, especially murdering their own children. In this way, women are subject to a greater stigmatization that entails more detrimental consequences in their environment and also in their self-concept and therapeutic disposition. Fortunately, at least the Ser Mujer programme implemented in Spanish prisons is exemplary, and in which, among other objectives, imprisoned women are sensitized to prevent them from becoming, or re-becoming, victims of gender violence, a growing phenomenon in recent years, and that it will have an impact on their reintegration into society by breaking down many gender stereotypes and adopting a more empowered self-image. Let us hope that the SGIP designs and implements more programmes in this direction aimed at this vulnerable and forgotten group.