An offending strategy: The state’s response to women within the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland

This chapter discusses the approach adopted in Northern Ireland towards women in conflict with the law. Based on a literature review (Convery 2009) commissioned by the Criminal Justice Directorate of the Northern Ireland Office, it critically examines the strategy to manage criminalised women in Northern Ireland published by the Department of Justice in October 2010. It assesses the actions proposed by the Department in relation to addressing women’s pathways into crime, providing alternatives to prosecution and custody, gender-specific community sanctions, and the imprisonment of women. It is argued that this assessment demonstrates gaps between rhetorical evocations and the contradictory reality, and consequently the patterned failure of the criminal justice system to adopt an adequate, appropriate and humane response to women is sustained.