Are women being "targeted" by law enforcement?

Statistics Canada recently reported that the number of women jailed for "serious offenses" has dramatically increased by 34% since 1991. However, criminal justice experts have rushed in to assure the public that the new numbers paint a misleading picture of female offenders.

So then, what is the cause of the spike? 

According to Shawn Bayes, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, more women are being arrested in cases of domestic violence where both partners reported abuse/injury. And why shouldn't they be? Why would a woman be considered any less responsible for violent or abusive behaviour than her male counterpart?

Bayes further argued that "most of the assaults and robberies" were committed by women who were working as prostitutes. While I understand the logic that desperate people do desperate things, I can't help but wonder if maybe these women were simply easier to apprehend because they were already known to police through their dealings in the sex trade?

Ryerson University Criminologist Tammy Landau had another suggestion: law enforcement officials are specifically targetting women. According to her:

"They're sort of targeting women at the airport for being drug mules, and things like that, so there's a lot more emphasis on enforcement against women."

I'm sorry, Tammy, but WTF??? Perhaps it's the sort of way you chose to share your explanation and things like that, but I'm not drinking the Kool Aid!

Has it ever occurred to any of the "experts" that perhaps law enforcement has taken a closer look at the evil that women do because the "weaker sex" has finally succeeded in convincing the criminal justice system that they are, indeed, capable of it? When will we, as a society, abandon the antiquated notion that when a woman commits an offence there must always be a justifiable reason?

Here is the article I harvested my data from:

Surge in crime rates for women misleading: Shift in police enforcement means Canadian women increasingly targeted

July 25, 2012
CBC News

Canadian crime statistics showing an apparently dramatic rise in women ending up behind bars for violent crimes gives a false image of a wave of female offenders, criminal justice experts say.

Figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) showed the number of women jailed for serious violations jumped by more than one-third last year compared to 1991, but the Elizabeth Fry Society in Vancouver says those numbers have to be considered against the bigger picture.

For example, Shawn Bayes, the group's executive director, noted that a shift in police enforcement over the years means officers are more likely to charge women than in the past in cases of domestic disputes where both parties claim they were assaulted.

The CCJS report said that "while the rate of adult males charged has been declining over the past 20 years, the rate of adult females has generally been increasing," and the rate for females charged with violent crime has risen 34 per cent.

"The context can be misleading, that you think that it's a huge increase when it says 34 per cent," Bayes said.

While the percentage jump may seem huge, she said the numbers indicate only about 100 more women were being charged every year, and that's across the entire country.

Men still commit far more crimes. Of the 413,800 adults charged last year, 79 per cent were males, according to the CCJS.

Bayes said most of the assaults and robberies committed by women took place while they were working as prostitutes.

"So we have women in very dire circumstances who, of course, we can't be surprised are going to be involved in situations that will lead them into conflict with the criminal justice system, and situations that place them at greater risk of being charged with a violent offence," she said.

Tammy Landau, a criminologist at Ryerson University in Toronto, agreed that new enforcement patterns are likely driving up the numbers of females in jail cells.

"There are a lot more drug charges, recently now against women," Landau said. "That's because they're sort of targeting women at the airport for being drug mules, and things like that, so there's a lot more emphasis on enforcement against women."

Leaving gender aside, the overall trend in Canada's crime rate is optimistic, with police services steadily reporting fewer serious and violent crimes over the years.

Landau said that decline should lead people to ask the federal government why it's moving ahead with tougher sentencing laws that would put more people behind bars — men and women — in the years ahead.