In 2014, fewer than one in five delinquents dealt with by the legal system were women. In proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legal status of the perpetrator, overall, the criminal justice system’s response prioritised alternative measures for six out of ten women, whereas this was the case for only four out of ten men. Conversely, 35% of accused women were prosecuted before a court, compared with more than half of men (53%). When sentenced, women were given less severe punishments than men, both in the type of sentence and the length of imprisonment. Thus the further up the legal and penal system, the lower the rate of feminisation: from 18% of those charged to 15% of perpetrators receiving a criminal justice response, 10% of those prosecuted before a court and less than 4% of the prison population.

This difference in legal treatment, which appears to be more lenient towards women, is based in part on three factors that can be analysed statistically: the nature of the offence committed, the complexity of the case (obtained from the number of offences) and the perpetrator’s delinquent past. Indeed, female delinquency is generally different from male delinquency and less violent. Women are sentenced for less complex cases and they are only half as likely as men to have a criminal record.

When the number of offences and a previous criminal record are taken into account simultaneously the differences between men and women are reduced, especially for road traffic incidents and drug use, where men and women receive identical penalties. However, these differences are not eliminated completely for other categories of offence, especially against property or individuals, for which women are punished less severely than men.