There is currently little research on female offender assessment with virtually none focused on the issues of criminal history, mental health and recidivism. Unfortunately, most research attempting to isolate factors associated with criminality have used male samples, and results tend to be generalized to the female offender population. This occurs despite evidence that there are gender differences in the predictors of criminal recidivism. A partial explanation for these differences is that for every six Canadian men suspected of and prosecuted for a criminal offence only one woman is subject to the same.
Women also tend to receive shorter sentences than men.
There are two plausible explanations for these findings. The first is that women are committing relatively fewer serious offences, and are therefore less likely to be sentenced to incarceration. Alternatively, women may be filtered out of the criminal justice system at all stages of the process. Therefore, despite the fact that women commit fewer violent crimes, there is still a discernible under-representation of female offenders in custody. As such, the mental health and criminal justice systems are deeply intertwined.