Female Prisoners in Malaysia: An Examination of Socio demographic Characteristics

Crime rates have increased significantly over recent months and years, specifically urban crime rate. The number of females incarcerated in Malaysian prisons grew from 2909 in 1998 to 3511 in the year 2000 (15.07 rate per 100,000 inhabitants) (Malaysian Crime Index, 2002). Recent research has compared male and female trends in violent offending arrest data and found that female to male offending rate ratio for aggravated assault, robbery and simple assault have increased over time and there is a narrowing of the gender gaps (Lauritsen et al., 2009, ). However little is known about the females who commit crimes, the type of crimes committed and the risk factors associated with their criminal behaviour. Studies show that there are variations among female and male crime offenders concerning education, measured intelligence and marital status of parents (Silverthorn et al., 2001). As women are portrayed as the backbone of the nation, it is pertinent to understand who these women are, reasons for committing these crimes and the impact of their imprisonment on their immediate families and to outline methods to overcome this problem. The population to be researched would be the incarcerated females in a Women Prison in Malaysia. From the findings, it is hoped that concrete methods could be outlined as to how crime amongst female could be reduced.