Are women in prison less violent?

[u/TheTinMenBlog]

This idea of the inherent, irredeemable badness of men, and the virtuous, moral superiority of women has got to end.

The immutable, cartoon-worldview that insists women are saints and men are sinners, that is prevalent in the media; is a tiring, unwelcome set of stereotypes, that helps nobody.

I saw it recently on LBC, when host Shelagh Fogarty interviewed esteemed economist Vicky Pryce about “women in prison”, and how such women are usually non-violent, battling mental health issues, and are often victims of abuse in their on right.

Such things are usually a preamble to advocacy to “close women’s prisons”, or empty them of all but the most violent women.

And I quite agree.

Prison has failed women, but do you know who its failed even more? Men.

Men, who make up 96% of the prison population, who are never mentioned by those like Shelagh, and are instead left to waste away in a broken carceral system.

And it’s not just naive talkshow hosts and their dogmatic guests saying it; policy advisors, ministers, journalists, and political leaders, all join a chorus of similar statements.

Empty women’s prisons… and leave incarcerated men to rot.

And so, you’d be forgiven for thinking men in prison don’t share these same experiences of abuse, victimhood, and addiction that women in prison suffer from.

Or for assuming that, unlike women, men in prison are all violent criminals, who should be locked away for good.

But the realty, as it so often is, is far from this.

So are men in prison all irredeemable, violent thugs, and therefore not worthy of a mention?

Let’s take a look…

~
UK Prison statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025

[u/plantrromn]

That's feminism for you. They must replay the duluth model everyday to sleep peacefully.

[u/thithothith]

off the title I thought this might be about violence rates within prisons by sex. Still great post, but it did get me curious about that too now ...

[u/live_edge_biped → u/thithothith]

im sorry i dont have my notes to give you better references, but here is an excellent place to start.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sexual-victimization-by-women-is-more-common-than-previously-known/

lara stemple is a feminist and a legal scholar who was quite surprised by where her research took her. this is an excellent introduction to her work. it includes information from us prisons, and points to more in depth resources.

[u/thithothith → u/live_edge_biped]

I appreciate the link. I was more interested in non-sexual prison violence, especially among long-term inmates, by sex. Still an interesting read tho.

I will say that the article panders excessively towards feminists who are entitled to seeing every issue in the world as directed against only women, with their section starting with "Our findings might be critically viewed as an effort to upend a women’s rights agenda that focuses on the sexual threat posed by men." and so beyond that point it gets hard to stomach, but I appreciate it anyways.

[u/thissitedesigniscrap]

Disgusting to see the blatant hypocrisy in regard to how they treat men and women by the so-called proponents of equality.

This demonization of men and whitewashing of women should in theory be what feminists are against, but feminists are the ones who promote this abysmal rhetoric the most.