Over 733,000 women and girls are detained in penal institutions worldwide, based on recent research studies. This statistic encompasses both remand prisoners and those who have been convicted and sentenced. Experts believe the true count is substantially larger due to incomplete data from several countries.
Females typically constitute a small minority of national prison populations – commonly between 2-9% on average. Presently, women and girls represent approximately 6.8% of the international inmate count. Nevertheless, their population is growing at a quicker pace than incarcerated men.
Since the year 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has increased by almost three-fifths – nearly thrice the increase observed in the male prison population. The global female prison population increased by more than 100,000 individuals during the ten-year interval ending in 2020.
Women's lawbreaking are often linked to poverty and usually serve as a means of survival to support their children and relatives.
Comprehensive research has determined that laws often criminalize basic sustenance activities and that women are disproportionately affected because they are more commonly found among the most impoverished segments of society. In numerous countries, laws criminalizing abortion, adultery, sexual misconduct and prostitution almost exclusively affect women. The likelihood of receiving a prison sentence is often also related to poverty and the failure to afford fines for petty offenses or to obtain release.
The United States has the highest count of female prisoners with 174,607. China ranks second with 145,000, plus an unknown number of women and girls in pre-trial detention and "procedural custody. Further substantial contributors include Brazil (50,441), Russia (39,153), Thailand (33,057), India (23,772), the Philippines (17,121), Turkey (16,581), Vietnam (15,152), Mexico (13,841) and Indonesia (13,044).
In Britain, there are 3,566 women in prison – representing 4% of the overall inmate count. Projections indicate these numbers are expected to rise to 4,200 by 2027. Across Europe, 94,472 women are currently imprisoned, while Australia reports 3,473 women in prison, amounting to approximately 8% of its complete incarceration numbers.
Even accounting for typical population expansion over the previous two-and-a-half decades, the surge in the number of female prisoners per 100,000 people still shows a substantial rise. El Salvador and Cambodia have experienced increases exceeding 600%, while these countries have seen increases over five times.
Present approximations indicate there are between 500 and 1,000 women on death row in at least 42 countries worldwide.
The states that carry out executions on the most women are similarly the nations that perform the highest number of executions in general, namely China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. According to latest reports, an undetermined count of women were put to death in China, while two were executed in Egypt, 30 in Iran, one in Iraq, nine in Saudi Arabia and two in Yemen.
Unreliable information is available for nations with highest execution rates or for additional countries including North Korea, Vietnam and Qatar. Nevertheless, analysis is obtainable concerning 15 other countries with the most women on death row.
The two primary crimes for which women are given capital punishment are murder and drug trafficking. Countries with required execution sentences for murder, or that refuse to consider gender-based violence as mitigating circumstances, are inclined to display increased quantities of women on death row and frequent death sentences.
Furthermore, countries that severely criminalize drug trafficking, such as those in the Gulf region and Oriental southeast, have a significant percentage of women on death row.
Various professionals and activists contend that prison is inappropriate penalty for a substantial percentage of women who violate regulations. Many are jailed for non-aggressive offenses; in England and Wales, for example, 72% of female prison admissions in 2020 belonged to this group. Women commonly face a "repetitive cycle of limited imprisonment terms – insufficiently long to engage in meaningful education, training or work opportunities.
Up to 80% of women in prison worldwide have an recognizable psychiatric disorder. In Europe, suicide rates for women in prison are nine times higher than for the overall public, based on the World Health Organization.
In response to growing statistics of imprisoned females and a deficiency of regulations reflecting their needs, the United Nations Female Inmate Guidelines (known as the Bangkok Rules) were accepted by the UN General Assembly in December 2010. These rules require nations to establish non-imprisonment penalties and to ensure gender-sensitive treatment in prisons.
An calculated 19,000 children live in prison with a parent, typically their mother, while many times that number are separated from them. Approximately 1.45 million children worldwide have a incarcerated mother.
Besides the obvious separation and connected hardship that a prison sentence can cause, it is quite common for a woman to forfeit parental rights of her children after just a short time in prison.
Various states make provision for babies and young children to remain in correctional facilities with their mothers up to a specific age. Nevertheless, a childhood spent in prison can negatively affect a minor both physically and emotionally.
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