Women in prison: the central issues of gender characteristics and trauma history.

Insufficient attention is being paid to two key issues which are critical to a better understanding of what can be done to improve present services for women in prison. Firstly, the demographics, determinants and profiles of imprisoned women clearly show factors that should be central to any prison policy for women. Secondly, an analysis of the role of trauma history shows its strong influence on offending behaviour. Any modern approach to providing a more acceptable criminal justice policy for women must pay much greater attention to these two important issues.