Discussion Female offenders convicted of assault and robbery have a similar profile. They are usually Caucasian, single and 29 years old, at the time of their first federal offence. 10 Over three quarters of the female offenders convicted of robbery compared to half of those convicted of assault were either unemployed, working in the sex-trade industry or on social assistance at the time of their offence. Female offenders in both groups were most likely to have been unemployed at the time of their offence. Female offenders with assault and robbery convictions had similar education levels, although female offenders convicted of assault had a slightly higher level of education than those convicted of robbery.
Female offenders convicted of robbery and assault receive relatively short sentences.
The average aggregate sentence length was five years for both robbery and assault. There were some differences between the two groups on criminal-risk ratings. Most female offenders with robbery convictions were considered a medium criminal risk whereas those convicted of assault were evenly distributed between high and medium criminal-risk ratings. In spite of these differences, female offenders convicted of assault and robbery were both classified as high-needs cases more than half the time. These findings have implications for the type and timing of interventions used with these female offenders.