Author(s):

Naomi Delap and Liz Hogarth

Published date:

10/03/2025

Breaking out of the Justice Loop: Creating a criminal justice system that works for women, by Naomi Delap (Director, Birth Companions) and Liz Hogarth (Independent women’s justice expert), examines why the justice system continues to fail women, and what needs to change.

National Women's Justice Coalition logoIt is being co-published in partnership with the National Women’s Justice Coalition.

Our justice system, designed for men, is not working for women. Our prisons are full of trauma: over 60 per cent of women in prison have experienced domestic violence and more than half have experienced abuse as a child. Our prisons are bad at rehabilitating and deterring women from further offending; instead, they actively harm them and their children. Racially minoritised women are further disadvantaged: overrepresented at every point in the system and more likely than white women to be remanded and receive a sentence in the Crown Court. The human and financial cost of the system’s failure is significant.